Surrounded by some of the world’s richest soil and home to two major grain processing plants, Decatur has long been a hub for agribusiness in the United States. One major trade-off comes in the form of excess nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, that runoff from fertilizers used on local farm fields and from discharges from
A national environmental organization labeled the Raccoon River one of the country’s most endangered because of toxic algae and nitrates. Des Moines Water Works called it a “catastrophe,” as the Raccoon is the major source for drinking water for a half-million Iowans. Des Moines Water Works, after dumping as much as $250,000 a year into
All the things that go down the drain and end up at the waste water treatment plant are not removed there. Some of the industrial byproducts that end up in sewers, the agricultural chemicals that runoff farmland, and pharmaceuticals that pass through our bodies all can end up in our streams and lakes. Water treatment
Biologists in Cornwall have found that chemicals released in the ocean from plastic can lead to deformities in marine animals. The study by biologists from the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus found that plastics in the ocean can release chemicals that cause deformities in sea urchin larvae. Read More
Alex Weber, a junior at Carmel High School in California, and her friend Jack Johnston had repeatedly come across large numbers of golf balls on the ocean floor while snorkeling in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary near the town of Carmel-by-the-Sea. As environmentally conscious teens, they started removing golf balls from the water, one