Nutrient Pollution

Living things require nutrients, which are chemical elements, to grow and survive. Elevation in the concentration of nutrients however, impacts the usage of a water body that it is specified for. Nutrient pollution is a form of water pollution and refers to contamination by excessive inputs of nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, which when added to water beyond their base-level concentrations, act as fertilizers, causing excessive growth of algae. Nutrients come from a variety of different sources. They can occur naturally as a result of weathering of rocks and soil in the watershed and they can also come from the ocean due to mixing of water currents. Some water bodies are naturally high in nutrients, e.g., bedrock and groundwater interaction that may be phosphorus-rich. But for those water bodies that have a high phosphorus content from unnatural sources, phosphorus stimulates explosive blooms of aquatic algae, including the specially dangerous cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that produces toxins that can be deadly to animals and people. Toxin produced by the cyanobacteria can harm the nervous system, cause stomach and intestinal illness and kidney disease, trigger allergic responses and damage the liver. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient used by all living things. Over the past century the increase in human population has increased the demand for food and energy. Meeting these requirements has increased the amount of reactive nitrogen in the environment the kind that is readily available to the biota: ammonia, ammonium, and nitrates. Nitrate, the most common form of nitrogen in surface and groundwater, is directly toxic to human health. Infants who drink water with high nitrate levels can develop an acute, life-threatening blood disorder called blue baby syndrome. High nitrate levels in water can also affect thyroid function in adults and increase risk of thyroid cancer. Excess nitrogen is a common drinking water contaminant in agricultural areas. Nitrogen pollutants in the air from burning fossil fuels contribute to a variety of respiratory problems for children, the elderly and those with lung ailments. Chemicals used to treat nutrient-polluted drinking water pose additional risks to human health. These chemicals, including chlorine, can react with the algae in the water to form disinfection by-products that have been associated with reproductive and developmental health problems. This process is referred to commonly as eutrophication. But this process is much more than this. It can be defined as an increase in the rate of supply of organic matter to an ecosystem. This emphasizes an increase in organic carbon and energy available to the ecosystem. Although nutrient enrichment is the most common cause of coastal marine and freshwater eutrophication, it is not the only cause. Other changes, like a dam, can increase the supply of organic matter from primary production with a water body. Large scale change in climate and hydrography may increase production in complex ways. Excess nutrients cause over-multiplication of aquatic algae (such as phytoplankton). The large algal population runs out of some other vital resource, so many individuals begin to die. The dead algae provide a bonus food resource for decomposers, which experience a population boom. This huge decomposer population breathes in oxygen and therefore seriously depletes the oxygen level in the water. Decreasing oxygen levels are harmful to fish and other animals that require high oxygen levels to survive. If the cycle continues, the fish could begin to die, providing even more food for decomposers.

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The decomposers could continue to multiply, further depleting oxygen from the water body, until no organisms can survive. Nitrogen pollution has a number of consequences in coastal marine ecosystems, in addition to stimulating an increase in the amount of organic matter being produced. Among some of the more thoroughly documented is changing the type and species of plants that make the organic matter. Changes in species and size of the phytoplankton can have important implications for the grazing animals in the water that feed on them. Excess reactive nitrogen in the environment can lead to pollution problems, including the deterioration of air quality, disruption of forest processes, acidification of lakes and streams, and degradation of coastal waters. While the global increase in reactive nitrogen from human activities supports higher crop yields and greater energy production, it also sets off a series of adverse environmental changes known as a nitrogen cascade. The impact on air quality includes elevated ground-level ozone, increased particles in the air, reduced visibility, increased acid rain and nitrogen deposition. This then impacts forest by increased acidity of forest soils, nitrogen saturation of forest ecosystems, and ozone damage to forests. This in-turn impacts water quality by elevated acidification of lakes and streams, groundwater contamination, and over-enrichment of coastal ecosystems. There are still other cascading impacts in increased production of greenhouse gases contributing to global climate change and adverse human health effects from particulate matter and ground-level ozone. By analyzing experimental results, it has been found that the sources of this nitrogen pollution are food, particularly that which is not local, airborne emissions of NOx and NH3, and the subsequent deposition (via rain, snow, clouds, smoke, fog, or particles) of nitrates and ammonium, nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops, pastures, and lawns, increased production of crops that host nitrogen-fixing bacteria, nitrogen in animal feed. Of this the major sources of reactive nitrogen include nitrogen fixation in the croplands and fertilizer use. Food generates reactive nitrogen in the environment as a byproduct of both food production and food consumption. Food production leaves a legacy of reactive nitrogen in the regions where it is produced. It is estimated that 10 times the amount of nitrogen is used during the food production process than is ultimately consumed by humans as protein. Much of this additional nitrogen is applied as fertilizer that can run off into groundwater, rivers and coastal waters. Moreover, the production of animal protein adds substantial quantities of reactive nitrogen to the environment in the form of nitrogen-rich manure that can decrease water quality in agricultural areas. Once food is consumed, it can contribute to pollution through the production and discharge of sewage. Humans do not utilize all of the nitrogen contained in food. The remaining nitrogen is lost as waste to septic systems or wastewater treatment plants. Since most septic systems and treatment plants do not effectively remove nitrogen from the waste, reactive nitrogen is eventually discharged to rivers and coastal waters where it contributes to water quality problems. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (from the vapors of paint, gasoline and solvents, and natural emissions from plants) combine in the presence of high Page | 2

temperatures and sunlight to form ozone. High concentrations of ground-level ozone can have adverse effects on both human health and the environment. Ground-level ozone also presents a significant health risk for trees and other vegetation. The two major categories of plant effects are injury to leaves and needles, and physiological changes. Ozone comes into contact with plants through stomatal conductance, or the uptake of ozone through small pores on the tree. Visual symptoms of ozone stress include damage to parts of the leaf or needle, and premature loss of foliage. Physiological changes can also occur to the plant without visible signs of injury. The most pronounced physiological effect is the reduction in the ability of the plant to convert sunlight to energy (through photosynthesis) that is needed to fuel plant growth. The net effect of this change is a decrease in tree biomass production, or growth. Nitrogen in the form of nitric acid is one of the two major constituents of acid rain (the other is sulfuric acid). Acid rain can cause fundamental changes in soils, forests and streams. Research to date has shown that acid rain can affect forest health in two ways direct impacts on foliage, and reduced stress tolerance associated with soil changes. Once reactive nitrogen enters a watershed in food, atmospheric deposition, or fertilizer, some of it is retained within the landscape, some of it returns to the atmosphere, and some of it flows downstream to coastal estuaries. The contribution of reactive nitrogen to coastal waters from atmospheric deposition includes nitrogen that is deposited directly to the estuary as well as nitrogen deposited on the watershed that ultimately is transported downstream to the estuary. Coastal ecosystems are naturally very rich in plant and animal life. However, since the richness (or productivity) of saltwater ecosystems is naturally limited by the availability of reactive nitrogen, excess nitrogen can lead to a condition of over-enrichment. The over-enrichment of estuaries promotes the excessive growth of algae. As a means of reducing nitrogen, we look at reduction in wastewater nitrogen scenarios. These include implementation of biological nitrogen removal (BNR) at wastewater treatment plants, implementation of BNR at wastewater treatment plants within the coastal zone, combined BNR and improvement in septic system treatment, and displacement of nitrogen to the continental shelf through offshore pumping. Nitrogen pollution is increasing and contributes to a wide array of environmental problems. As a single nitrogen molecule cascades through the environment, it contributes to air quality degradation, acidification of soil and surface waters, disruption of forest processes and over-enrichment of coastal waters. Solving the nitrogen problem will require a multi-pronged approach. Adding nitrogen control technology to treatment plants would significantly reduce nitrogen pollution in estuaries. Policy efforts should include concentrated efforts to reduce airborne nitrogen emissions from vehicles and electric utilities and increased investment in improved wastewater treatment to address nitrogen pollution.

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References: 1. Nixon, Scott W. and Fulweiler, Robinson W., 2009: Global loss of Coastal Habitats Rates, Causes and Consequences. http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/dat/01%20Nixon&Fulweiler_Separata.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 2. Naidenko, Olga V.; Cox, Craig; Bruzelius, Nils, April 2012: Troubled Waters Farm Pollution Threatens Drinking Water. Environmental Working Group. http://www.amwa.net/galleries/defaultfile/troubled_waters.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 3. Selman, Mindy and Greenhalgh, Suzie, June 2009: Eutrophication - Sources and Drivers of Nutrient Pollution. World Resources Institute. http://pdf.wri.org/eutrophication_sources_and_drivers.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 4. Committee on the Causes and Management of Eutrophication, Ocean Studies Board, Water Science and Technology Board, National Research Council, 2000: Clean Coastal Waters. National Academies Press. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9812. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 5. Mass. Department of Food and Agriculture: Manure Management: Protecting Water Resources from Nutrient Pollution (Fact Sheet Farm Products and Plant Industries series). http://www.mass.gov/dep/water/drinking/manure.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 6. Soil and Water Science Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, March 2011: A Guide to EPA's Numeric Nutrient Water Quality Criteria for Florida. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/SS/SS52800.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 7. Driscoll, C.T., et al. 2003. Nitrogen Pollution: From the Sources to the Sea. Hubbard Brook Research Foundation. Science Links Publication. Vol. 1, no. 2. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDkQFjAA&url=htt p%3A%2F%2Fhubbardbrookfoundation.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F12%2Freportnitrogen-pollution-from-the-sources-to-thesea.pdf&ei=BO99UqnaDo3wigKU44DwAQ&usg=AFQjCNEpMlZMzSFw3rTif8oEj7Z_zWfSgA&sig2=20X tubsjcnHT8_5jpC97XA&bvm=bv.56146854,d.cGE. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 8. US Environment Protection Agency, May 2012: The Fact about Nutrient Pollution. http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/upload/nutrient_pollution_factsheet.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 9. US Environment Protection Agency: Nutrient Pollution: The Problem. http://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/problem. Last retrieved 11/8/2013 10. Conservation Law Foundation: Nutrient Pollution. http://www.clf.org/our-work/cleanwater/nutrient-pollution/. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 11. Wikipedia article: Nutrient Pollution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrient_pollution. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 12. Issues in Ecology, Fall 2000: Nutrient Pollution of Coastal Rivers, Bays, and Seas. Ecological Society of America. http://www.esa.org/esa/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/issue7.pdf. Last retrieved 11/8/2013. 13. National Ocean Service of the NOAA: Nutrient pollution is the process where too many nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus, are added to bodies of water and can act like fertilizer, causing excessive growth of algae. http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nutpollution.html. Last retrieved 11/8/2013 Page | 4