Missouri Floods Raise Concerns for the Gulf, Drinking Water

The Ohio and Mississippi River levels were falling Wednesday at the site where engineers blasted holes in a Missouri levee to relieve pressure. But unleashing torrents of water across 35 miles of farmland in what has already been a terrible flooding season could carry other consequences.

One risk, scientists cautioned, is fertilizer runoff from the flooded farm country along the Mississippi. As it moves downstream, they predicted it would contribute to the largest-ever summertime depletion of oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico, posing a substantial risk to marine life.

The concern is that the water is likely pulling up components of fertilizers-notably nitrogen and phosphorus-and washing them downstream toward the Gulf, helping slash oxygen to levels marine life can't survive, said Nancy Rabalais, a marine scientist who is executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium on the Gulf coast.

Those chemicals act as nutrients in the Gulf, intensifying the growth of microscopic plants. Microbes eat away at those plants. In the process, they consume oxygen, reducing it to levels that kill marine life.

How Can States Raise Revenue?

By Mark Brenner

The traditional union approach to budget politics is to accept the limits of what's possible-typically defined by politicians and lobbyists-and push for the best deal we can within those fiscal constraints.

Labor leans heavily on its inside game, and builds outside pressure in the form of anti-cuts coalitions that highlight the vital services public employees provide, and the harm that cuts will cause to the poor and vulnerable.

Unions may organize lobby days, but they don't do sustained member education, much less community outreach, pressure, or more militant tactics.

Raising taxes is painted as the political kiss of death, so politicians-and most unions-aim low. They avoid engaging with the deeper question of what a fair economy would look like and what role budgets play in getting us there.