Nutrient Pollution Rising along mid-Atlantic and New England Coasts

October 20, 2006

DURHAM, N.H. ­ From the mid-Atlantic to New England, nutrient pollution in coastal waters is on the rise, according to a new study from NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA). Excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus—whether they come from stormwater runoff, sewage treatment plants, septic systems, or agriculture—are a threat to coastal water quality nationwide.

“Nutrient pollution is a pervasive problem that impacts ecosystems and human activities, particularly in highly developed areas,” says co-author Suzanne Bricker, Manager for NOAA’s National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment at CCMA. “Our study found that the problem is greater in the mid-Atlantic region, which has a higher population density and more intensive watershed development than coastal New England.”

New England, however, is not off the hook. The study’s results indicated that nutrient pollution in the Gulf of Maine is higher than it was early 1990s, and conditions are expected to worsen as the coastal population in that region increases. In both regions, the study’s researchers examined factors related to “eutrophication,” the process by which excess nutrients fuel excessive algal blooms that lead to low oxygen conditions, and ultimately, the death of marine organisms, including important commercial fish species.

“Evaluating the extent of eutrophication is the first step toward developing strategies to address it,” says Dwight Trueblood, NOAA co-director for the Cooperative Institute for Coastal and Estuarine Environmental Technology (CICEET), which co-sponsored the study. CICEET is a partnership of NOAA and the University of New Hampshire.

This study was distinctive in that it regarded human activity as part of the ecosystem. Along with enhancing traditional methods to assess eutrophication, researchers developed a new “human use indicator” that looks at the impact of nutrient pollution on recreational fish catches.

“Coastal managers need a way to understand how low oxygen conditions impact the fisheries that are major economic drivers for their regions,” says Bricker. “We’ve developed an indicator that, once tested and expanded, can be used to predict the loss of fish that will potentially occur during a specific drop in dissolved oxygen.”

The assessment methods developed through this study will serve as the basis for an update of NOAA's National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment, which will be released in 2007. This study’s findings are compiled in a report: “Improving Methods and Indicators for Evaluating Coastal Water Eutrophication: A Pilot study in the Gulf of Maine”: http://ccmaserver.nos.noaa.gov/publications/TMNCCOS20.pdf

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CICEET, a partnership of the University of New Hampshire an the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, develops tools for clean water and healthy coasts nationwide.