New Orleans — In two separate legal actions, environmental groups are challenging what they claim is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) refusal to address nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that is stimulating excessive growth of algae, which severely depletes oxygen levels and chokes off marine life in the Gulf of Mexico and other aquatic ecosystems. “The ecology and economy of the Gulf of Mexico have paid the price for EPA’s endless dithering about Dead Zone pollution,” said Matt Rota, director of science and water policy with the non-profit Gulf Restoration Network. “The most meaningful action the EPA can take is to set limits on the amount of these pollutants allowed in the Mississippi River watershed so that the fish and the fisheries can recover.” As members of the Mississippi River Collaborative represented by the Natural Resources Defense Council, these interests are challenging EPA’s denial of a 2008 petition to the agency asking EPA to establish quantifiable standards and clean up plans for Dead Zone pollution. Separately, several conservation groups are seeking to compel EPA to finally respond to an even older petition – a 2007 request that EPA modernize its decades-old pollution standards for sewage treatment plants and include the Dead Zone pollutants nitrogen and phosphorus in those standards. “Decisive EPA action on Dead Zone pollutants is a decade overdue,” said Glynnis Collins, executive director of the Illinois-based Prairie Rivers Network. “Illinois is the biggest contributor of pollution that creates this yearly crisis. With little action coming from the state, we clearly need an external push to be a more responsible neighbor.” There was no comment from EPA. Robin Craig, an environmental law expert at Florida State University College of Law, said nutrient pollution is “definitely on EPA’s radar as the next step forward in implementing water quality protection.”
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