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Mixed results reducing nutrients in Mississippi River

An official with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says while goals for reducing phosphorous levels in the Mississippi River are on target, efforts to reduce nitrogen are lagging behind.

Rebecca Flood tells Brownfield Minnesota plays a critical role in dealing with the hypoxia issue in the Gulf of Mexico, and partnerships with communities and dischargers across the state are paying off.

“They’ve been able to work hard to reduce the phosphorous that they’re discharging through improvements either in their storm water management or their waste water treatment facilities.  So we’ve seen about a 33 percent reduction in phosphorous.”

She says the goal is to reduce those levels by 45 percent within the next decade.

However, nitrogen reduction strategies implemented in the Upper Mississippi River Basin have not been as successful.

“But part of that has been (because) we really haven’t comprehensively been tracking the amount of nitrogen that’s been discharged until recently.  So we have, through our monitoring, a much better understanding of how much nitrogen is getting into our water resources and now we’re crafting different solutions.”

Flood, who participated in the recent Food Dialogue forum on water quality in Minneapolis, says best management practices on the farm are making a positive difference in reducing nutrient levels throughout the Mississippi River.