Nutrient Pollution

Runoff creates a visible line in the Appomattox River, a major tributary of the James River, which flows into southern Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. Credit: Kenny Fletcher, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Could the Mississippi River benefit from Chesapeake Bay’s strategy to improve water quality?

Sluggish progress on reducing nutrient runoff into the Bay marks an inconvenient truth, but offers lessons for others seeking to clean their watersheds.

Jeff Broberg examines water from a spring on April 11, 2024, near Altura, Minnesota. The retired geologist says, “I wouldn’t drink this water,” because of the nitrates and pesticides in it.

Coastal Desk

Not just a Gulf problem: Mississippi River farm runoff pollutes upstream waters

Madeline Heim, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Worsening local effects on health and recreation in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin are spurring action on problems that also cause the Gulf of Mexico’s chronic “dead zone.”

Farms along the Missouri River contribute fertilizer runoff to the Mississippi River.

Coastal Desk

Missouri Farmers Try To Reduce Runoff, But Cleaning Gulf Dead Zone May Take Decades

Eli Chen

When corn and soybean farmer Kenny Reichard stopped plowing some of his fields in northern Missouri in 1982, other farmers told him that it was a...