Home More The Mississippi Is Bringing A Lot More Than Just Water To The Gulf

The Mississippi Is Bringing A Lot More Than Just Water To The Gulf

by Stacey Santos

As Tropical Storm Barry maintains to weaken and circulate north, one would possibly suppose New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico are past the brunt of the damage. However, the mixture of rainfall from Barry (as high as 24 inches) and continued flooding from the upstream Mississippi River leaves a good deal of Louisiana and the gulf nevertheless at risk.

While the threat and harm to Louisiana and New Orleans are quite seen, there are increasing symptoms that the Mississippi River is doing long-lasting harm to the Gulf of Mexico, which it empties into.

The Mississippi Is Bringing A Lot More Than Just Water To The Gulf 2

The ancient flooding of the Mississippi River is bringing extraordinary amounts of freshwater, fertilizers, insecticides, and waste into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River is the second one-longest inside the world and drains 32 states and Canadian provinces all past New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico.

This great river is heavily modified from its herbal state with dams and levies controlling glide and the agricultural heartland of America adding fertilizers, pesticides, and animal waste into the waterway.
The deluge of freshwater weighted down with pollutants inflicts an entire host of issues within the Gulf of Mexico. One such example is the multiplied die-off of dolphins throughout the Gulf.

NOAA has declared an Unusual Mortality Event for bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico, with three hundred observed lifeless accounts of February 1, 2019. This is three times better than normal and extensively better than the mortality rate all through the peak of the BP oil spill in 2010.

The bottlenose dolphins are losing life in part because of freshwater exposure, which creates lesions throughout the dolphin’s body and finally results in loss of life. There are numerous reports of loss of life dolphins floating close by beaches and marshes along the coast.

Scientists estimate that the Gulf of Mexico dead sector this year will balloon to the scale of Massachusetts. The dead area is a result of fertilizers coming into the Gulf of Mexico waters. As the fertilizer is dumped into the gulf, it acts as a “superfood” for algae, creating a big algal bloom. The algae then die and start to decompose as it’s far eaten by using bacteria in the water. This bacteria respire much like human beings and successfully eliminates all the oxygen from nearby water. These dead zones are anoxic (without oxygen) water and reason great fish die off as they suffocate.

The Army Corps of Engineers has a difficult project in balancing the fitness and safety of Gulf nation citizens as well as the Gulf of Mexico and its appreciably weakened fisheries. The Corps is tasked with dealing with the outflow of water from the Bonnet Carre. As of July 15, the discharge charge into Lake Pontchartrain was 111,000 cubic feet, according to 2nd.

As the Mississippi continues to flood, there could be ongoing damage to the land surrounding the river and the Gulf into which it empties, an all too acquainted scenario for Gulf residents.

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