Research Paper: Eutrophication and Nutrient Runoff’s Impact the Health of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
An exclusive research paper written by Sarah Cho. Sarah's Eutrophication Paper was written as a part of the International High School Journal of Research Summer 2021 Student Cohort. Sarah's research paper was selected for international publication and will be included in an esteemed scholarly journal alongside the works of other talented researchers all over the world. Here is an exclusive peek at Sarah's paper, which will later also be unveiled in the IHSJR research publication.
The Chesapeake Bay is known as the biggest estuary in the United States. The Chesapeake Bay is unique because it contains a mix of saltwater and freshwater. The Bay’s watershed also runs along six different states and the U.S. Capital (New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia). According to Winegrad (2020), with a population of 18.3 million people the Chesapeake Bay watershed boasts a rich cultural and historical significance. Once an economically, agriculturally, and environmentally thriving area with the stewardship of the Piscataway, Powhatan, Nanticoke, and other Native American tribes, the Chesapeake Bay has struggled greatly in the present day. One of the biggest contributors to the Chesapeake Bay’s growing environmental problems is poor agricultural practices (Miller, 2020). There are an estimated 87,000 individual farms across the Bay’s watershed (Coronado, 2013). They have all contributed endless amounts of pollution to the Bay’s waterways. One of the biggest pollutants comes directly from the commercial fertilizers farmers use- nitrogen and phosphorus (Cramer, 2014).
Nitrogen and phosphorus are two nutrients that have had a complicated history with the Chesapeake Bay. After World War II, a cheap nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer was developed. The U.S. Government and many university professionals highly recommended the use of these fertilizers in farming practices. With a sudden abundance in use of cheap, low-quality fertilizer, it was inevitable that these nutrients started to leak into the Chesapeake Bay. Scientists started to observe the trends in decreasing water quality since the 1960s, however, it wasn’t until the early 1980s that action was taken. Since then, the Maryland government has tried to tackle restoration tasks in the Chesapeake Bay through partnership legislation with the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). It was projected that $14 billion worth of sewer management of stormwater control would have to be implemented to reach healthy water quality goals (Simpson et. al., 2015). With agriculture valued as an economy slightly under $1 billion, it has been projected that reducing agricultural emissions and pollution is much easier and cheaper than installing stormwater management to control the pollutants. Therefore, stormwater and sewer management systems were not implemented on a mass scale. However, with farmers arguing that the agricultural economy in the Chesapeake Bay watershed is vital for Maryland agriculture, legislators have been hesitant to pass legislation that harshly cuts down on pesticide usage in Maryland farms. In addition, the agricultural industry is an extremely difficult industry to regulate. The farm industry lobbied to be exempt from the Clean Air Act as well as the Clean Water Act (Horton et. al., 2015). With tens of thousands of miles of farms along the bay, it is also extremely difficult to regulate all of the lands. In many cases, nutrients and pesticides from a regulated region of the watershed may seep into unregulated areas where it is much more difficult to contain and control the nutrients.
One of the biggest reasons why nutrient runoff is difficult to control is because of its abundance. The majority of these nutrients are directly linked to agriculture. However, sewage treatment plant discharge, stormwater runoff, car and factory pollution, and septic tank failure are also relevant causes of nutrient runoff (Environmental Protection Agency). When these nutrients seep into the bay and cause harmful algae blooms (HAB), the process is called eutrophication. Eutrophication is characterized by excessive plant and algal growth due to the increased amount of nutrients and photosynthesis resources (Chislock et. al., 2013). The results of the eutrophication process are enormous algal blooms across bodies of water. According to Bath (2017), algal blooms are dense layers of small green plants that occur on the surface of bodies of water when there is an excessive amount of nutrients, especially phosphorus, on which algae depend. These algae blooms are growing at an alarming rate, which is becoming a huge concern. Algal blooms reek of a septic and grassy smell that can cause nausea in many people. They alarmingly raise toxicity levels in bodies of water, which inevitably lead to severe illness and even death (Kannan and Lenca, 2013). The algae can also seep into a community’s drinking water source, which can severely contaminate drinking water (Bank, 2016). With contaminated drinking water, local governments are also forced to invest additional resources to filter out algae from drinking water. This investment may jeopardize a local government, which struggles with maintaining a stable economy and balancing its funding. In addition, algae blooms can also restrict recreation in waters. Beaches won’t be as accessible due to the strong odors and safety concerns. In addition, recreational activities like boating, swimming, and fishing won’t be possible either due to the poor water quality and lack of wildlife in the waterways (Renault, 2019). Algae also can indirectly poison humans as well. If people eat shellfish that have been contaminated by algae, they can be exposed to cyanobacteria (Denchak and Sturm, 2019) . Denchak and Sturm (2019) also state that there are three classes of cyanotoxins humans can be infected by. Neurotoxins cause neurological damage, peptide hepatotoxins can cause liver damage, and dermatotoxins can cause skin irritations and respiratory issues.
Algae blooms are detrimental to human health, but it is also extremely dangerous to the biodiversity and animal populations of the Chesapeake Bay. When algae start to bloom, they grow at exponential rates. As algae continue to bloom, they kill off other organisms in their surrounding ecosystem. As they continue to grow and bloom, they suck up the oxygen out of an area. In addition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021), when algae start to decompose, they use up all the oxygen in an area, resulting in a dead zone. A dead zone is an area where the oxygen levels are too low for many aquatic organisms to survive (Briscoe and O’Connell, 2019). This can cause biodiversity in areas across the Chesapeake Bay plummet. With a lack of essential oxygen, many fish, aquatic plants, and many other organisms inevitably die. This leads to a domino effect that impacts the fishery economy of the Chesapeake Bay and the aquatic agriculture economy of the Bay, the bay (Rabotyagov et. al., 2014). In addition, the lack of oxygen can also kill off organisms that are essential to the Bay. For example, oysters are one of the most crucial organisms in the Chesapeake Bay, both symbolically and functionally. According to Sargent (2021), a single oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. Oysters are crucial to filtering out harmful nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen out of the Bay’s waters. However, in dead zones, oysters will unfortunately die, leaving room for even more nutrients to negatively impact the Bay’s waters.
Nutrient runoff from the agricultural industry is continuing to plague the Chesapeake Bay. What starts as a leak of pesticide from a farm can lead off to contaminated drinking water, poisoning, poor water quality, and biodiversity loss in the watershed. Tackling nutrient runoff and the abundance of eutrophication seems like a daunting task, however, scientists, environmental advocates, and farmers are joining hands to develop multiple solutions to combat agricultural runoff. Ever since 2009, the Environmental protection Agency has worked on a federal level to slowly restrict nutrient pollution and runoff through policies and regulations (Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). In addition, natural solutions like riparian buffers are in the process of being implemented across the banks of rivers and streams in the watershed. According to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (2020), riparian buffers are trees, shrubs, or other vegetation that prevent nutrient runoff from contaminating waterways. They help filter out pollutants before they actually reach the water. In addition, detailed regulation on the specific types of nutrient fertilizers farmers can use and creating strict restrictions on the quantity of fertilizer usage can help significantly reduce waterway pollution as well. Many people are not aware of the detrimental impacts of eutrophication, therefore, educating the Chesapeake Bay watershed citizens through public material and school curriculum is crucial to helping the public understand eutrophication happening in their communities. Continuously developing methods to restrict nutrient runoff as much as possible is essential to the wellbeing of the Bay.
References
Bath, S. (2017, December 13). What Are Algal Blooms and Why Do They Matter? International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/articles/what-are-algal-blooms-and-why-do-they-matter
Briscoe, T., & O’Connell, P. (2019, November 17). What Are Algae Blooms and Dead Zones? Pulitzer Center. https://pulitzercenter.org/stories/what-are-algae-blooms-and-dead-zones
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, March 9). General information about harmful algal blooms. https://www.cdc.gov/habs/general.html
Chesapeake Bay Foundation. (2020, April 3). Riparian Buffers and Clean Water. https://www.cbf.org/news-media/multimedia/video/cbf-education-videos/riparian-buffers-and-clean-water-video.html
Chiclock, M. F., Doster, E., Zitomer, R. A., & Wilson, A. E. (2013). Eutrophication: Causes, Consequences, and Controls in Aquatic Ecosystems | Learn Science at Scitable. The Nature Education. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466/
Coronado, K. (2013, April 12). Local Motives. Arlington Magazine. https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/local-motives/
Cramer, S. (2014). An Examination of Levels of Phosphorus and Nitrogen in the Chesapeake Bay Before and After Implementation of the Chesapeake 2000 Program. The Public Purpose, 12, 1–8. https://www.american.edu/spa/publicpurpose/upload/2014-public-purpose-chesapeake-sam-cramer.pdf
Denchak, M., & Sturm, M. (2019, August 28). Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms 101. Natural Resources Defense Council. https://www.nrdc.org/stories/freshwater-harmful-algal-blooms-101#:%7E:text=When%20algae%20and%20bacteria%20in,forced%20to%20relocate%20to%20survive.
Environmental Protection Agency. (2021, July 16). Addressing Nutrient Pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/nutrient-policy-data/addressing-nutrient-pollution-chesapeake-bay#:%7E:text=Restoration%20efforts%20to%20improve%20water,through%20communication%20and%20outreach%20programs.
Horton, T., Simpson, T., Kobell, R., & Summers, R. (2015). Agriculture and the Chesapeake Bay: A Complicated History. The Chesapeake Bay and Agricultural Pollution: The Problem, Possible Solutions, and the Need for Verification, 3–8. https://abell.org/sites/default/files/publications/env-agrunoff1215.pdf
Miller, H. (2020, August 19). Report faults Maryland for failings in Chesapeake Bay pollution. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/report-faults-maryland-for-failings-in-chesapeake-bay-pollution/2020/08/18/8c4421f2-e193-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html
Rabotyagov, S. S., Kling, C. L., Gassman, P. W., Rabalais, N. N., & Turner, R. E. (2014). The Economics of Dead Zones: Causes, Impacts, Policy Challenges, and a Model of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone. Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 8(1), 4–12. https://economics.ucdavis.edu/events/papers/Kling117.pdf
Renault, M. (2021, July 27). What are algae blooms and why are they bad? Popular Science. https://www.popsci.com/algae-blooms-toxic-harmful-environment/
Sargent, C. (2021). Oysters: nature’s water filtration system. One Earth. https://www.oneearth.org/oysters-natures-water-filtration-system/
United States Environmental Protection Agency. (2012, May). The facts about nutrient pollution. Midwest Advocates. https://midwestadvocates.org/assets/resources/nutrient_pollution_factsheet.pdf
Winegrad, G. (2020, January 31). 36 years after first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, its restoration is still a pipe dream: Column. Salisbury Daily Times. https://eu.delmarvanow.com/story/opinion/2020/01/31/36-years-later-chesapeake-bay-restoration-still-pipe-dream-column/4539909002/
Sarah Cho is a current high school junior attending Poolesville High School's Global Ecology Magnet Program. This past summer she was selected and admitted into the highly-competitive International High School Journal of Research Student Cohort. Her research project was selected for publication and she even presented at the final IHSJR symposium. This research paper embodies her hard work last year as she produced her first professional scientific research paper.
