Efforts to shrink Gulf's 'dead zone' face serious setbacks from oil spill

[G_j]

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2010/05/04/17880/efforts_to_shrink_gulfs_dead_zone_face_serious_setbacks_from_oil_spill

Efforts to shrink Gulf's 'dead zone' face serious setbacks from oil spill

By Sharon Schmickle | Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The massive environmental disaster unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico — oil gushing uncontrolled from a damaged well — threatens to compound a different problem that originates 1,200 miles north of the Gulf in Minnesota.

The Gulf's so-called dead zone, caused by nitrogen runoff along the banks of the Mississippi River, already was suffocating oysters, clams and other sea creatures during the summer months.

Now, the growing oil slick could exacerbate that problem by further depleting oxygen that is vital to a myriad of marine life forms, said John Gulliver, a civil and environmental engineer who conducts research at the University of Minnesota's St. Anthony Falls Laboratory in Minneapolis.

Timing will be a key. And time does not appear to be on the side of those working to avert the union of the two man-made assaults on life in the Gulf's waters.

..more..

[RandomThoughts]

1. Notice the way they call the terrible tragedy a new label.

Instead of calling the black water from the oil gusher something based on what it is, that has many causes from years of problems, they call it the dead zone.

Why? because they want to talk about something else at the same time.

[Gman]

2. OTOH, if it had to happen, there are few fish in the dead zone

it happened in the right place so the impact on fish could be minimal?