The way environmentalist Craig Cox sees it, streams and rivers across much the country are suffering from the side effects of growing our food. Yet the people responsible for that pollution, America's farmers, are fighting any hint of regulation to prevent it.
"The leading problems are driven by fertilizer and manure runoff from farm operations," says Cox, who is the Environmental Working Group's top expert on agriculture.
Across the Midwest, he says, nitrate-filled water from farm fields is making drinking water less safe. Phosphorus runoff is feeding toxic algae blooms in rivers and lakes, "interfering with people's vacations. [They're] taking their kids to the beach and the beach is closed. There's stories about people getting sick."
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3 comments:
It's not like we take our drinking water very seriously. Flint STILL doesn't have clean water. Trump seems to have no idea how to even spell environmental
It's not the offing farmers, so get off them! There is so much sewage and other municipal waste flowing and the mud from dams like the Conowingo the farmers couldn't hold a candle to that performance!. Put down that CBF litter and open your eyes!
There are detection procedures and water monitoring devices that can seriously control and measure the run off allowing for significant decreases in this issue. In addition, farmers that use irrigation waste more water than their crops actually use by over watering. Problem is, if the Gov't get's involved they will no doubt screw this process up just like everything else they touch. A big catch twenty two!
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