Spring rains bring life to Midwest granaries but foster Gulf of Mexico 'Dead Zone'
Tuesday, April 9, 2013 - 08:50
in Earth & Climate
The most serious ongoing water pollution problem in the Gulf of Mexico originates not from oil rigs, as many people believe, but rainstorms and fields of corn and soybeans a thousand miles away in the Midwest. An expert on that problem—the infamous Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone"—today called for greater awareness of the connections between rainfall and agriculture in the Midwest and the increasingly severe water quality problems in the gulf.