Washington-Concerned that hypoxia has increased nearly 30-fold since 1960, several key environmental and scientific agencies with the U.S. government are calling for research and policy changes that could help reverse this growing problem in coastal water. Incidents of hypoxia were documented in nearly 50 percent of the 647 waterways assessed for the 163-page Scientific Assessment of Hypoxia in U.S. Coastal Waters delivered to congressional leaders. “The nation’s coastal waters are vital to our quality of life, our culture, and the economy. Therefore, it is imperative that we move forward to better understand and prevent hypoxic events which threaten all our coasts,” warned Nancy Sutley, chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, and John Holdren, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. According to the report, federal research programs are addressing many aspects of the problem of hypoxia, and coordination among the relevant governmental entities is increasing. As a result, some areas are now in better condition than they were a few decades ago. But overall, management efforts to stem the tide of hypoxia have not made significant headway, in part due to increased development and population growth in coastal watersheds. The report, produced by an interagency working group of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources, also notes that climate change may be causing or exacerbating the problem. “This report contains the latest and most in-depth science assessing the environmental impact of low-oxygen dead zones, and EPA is proud to have played a key role in developing the study,” said U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.
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