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Help Us Solve California’s Nitrate Problem
Agriculture was a $54 billion industry in California in 2014, and the numbers have continued to grow each year despite the drought. But that profit comes at a cost and one of those costs is water quality in our farming communities.
Plants need nitrogen to grow, and the advent of chemical fertilizer after World War Two helped generate an explosion in farm output. To maximize yield, farmers add more fertilizer than the plant needs; most of the extra nitrogen not used by the crop leaches into groundwater as nitrate. Unfortunately, nitrate is an acute contaminant that at high levels is especially
Legislative Session 2016: Building Momentum and Making Gains in CT!
Our disconnect with water: Scott Pond and linking individual actions to the health of our waters
Earlier this month, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) and Department of Health released an advisory to avoid contact with Scott Pond in Lincoln, Rhode Island due to the presence of blue-green algae in the water.
Not only should adults avoid contact with the water, it said, but so should pets. And children. It also advised against eating any fish taken from the pond. It then proceeded to list off a litany of potential side effects from contact with the algal-tainted waters: irritation of the skin, nose, and eyes, stomachache, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Fun stuff