Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Dead Zone in Gulf of Mexico
Source: truthout
snip: The Gulf of Mexico dead zone, which is the most closely studied human-caused coastal dead zone, was caused not only by massive amounts of the aforementioned chemicals, but also by other sources of nitrogen from animal feed, sewage treatment plants and urban runoff from the Mississippi River flowing into the Gulf. It has grown dramatically in recent years.
"The dead zone makes an area of the ocean floor - this year about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island, combined - with oxygen levels so low, critters in these areas must swim away or suffocate and die," Matt Rota, senior policy director for the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN), an environmental group that works to protect the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico, told Truthout. "This dead zone not only causes some mortality but also makes it harder for fishermen, especially shrimpers and others that fish for bottom-dwelling fish, to make their catch."
snip: "In 2001, state and federal bureaucrats set a goal of reducing the size of the dead zone to 1,950 square miles by 2015," Rota told Truthout. "Well here we are at 2015, and we are over three times that goal."
According to the network's press release on the subject: "In preparation for not meeting their goal, EPA announced in February that it would simply move the goal posts, pushing the deadline to 2035. This announcement did not include any specific new strategies for reaching the target."
Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32354-environmentalists-sue-epa-over-dead-zone-in-gulf-of-mexico#
This article doesn't even begin to address the impacts of leaks, spills and spews of oil and gas in the Gulf, either. Either EPA is being starved of money, which we know is true, or there is a revolving door with industry chiefs in charge, which I suspect is true as it is in nearly all fed agencies. EPA has failed time and again as far back as I can remember to protect water, air and soil from toxic chemicals. In the '70's when it was created, it was an agency dedicated to making all waters "drinkable, swimmable and fishable." But now EPA moves the goalposts so the deadlines to clean up are decades later. Shame on you, Pres. Obama---this agency is under your admin. And shame on Gina McCarthy, who worked as DEP chief in CT under a repuke before becoming EPA chief. In CT, she was mediocre and underwhelming at best. So thank you, Gulf Restoration Network, for suing.
Maybe these agencies will begin to take their mandates seriously when they get sued by the people.
= new reply since forum marked as read
No one is blogging about this important turn of events 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_zone_(ecology)
Dead zones are hypoxic (low-oxygen) areas in the world's oceans and large lakes, caused by "excessive nutrient pollution from human activities coupled with other factors that deplete the oxygen required to support most marine life in bottom and near-bottom water. (NOAA)."[2] In the 1970s oceanographers began noting increased instances of dead zones. These occur near inhabited coastlines, where aquatic life is most concentrated. (The vast middle portions of the oceans, which naturally have little life, are not considered "dead zones".)
In March 2004, when the recently established UN Environment Programme published its first Global Environment Outlook Year Book (GEO Year Book 2003), it reported 146 dead zones in the world's oceans where marine life could not be supported due to depleted oxygen levels. Some of these were as small as a square kilometre (0.4 mi²), but the largest dead zone covered 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 mi²). A 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide.[3][4]
I feel the same way as you.
