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Ocean PollutionIn the Gulf of MexicoJoe Arguelles, Daniela Garcia, Mehtaab Lakhani, Mario Machado, Makayla Yoshimotocenterbottom00Environmental Studies 106: Critical ThinkingUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraDecember 16th, 2014IntroductionThe Gulf of Mexico is a lively ocean basin bounded by the United States, Mexico, and Cuba and is the ninth largest body of water in the world. ?It is one of the most diverse ecosystems teeming with sea life, from killer whales to shrimp to species in unexplored corals. ?The Gulf is home to over fifteen thousand different species of marine wildlife, in addition to being a stopping point for migratory birds from South America to the Arctic. ?It is a very significant and well-nourished landmark, that is taken advantage of and consistently polluted. ?It provides our nation with a wide array of valuable resources, the most important and most profitable being oil and natural gas. ?In the northern Gulf it has been estimated that there is between 140 and 720 billion barrels of petroleum and 44 to 223 trillion cubic meters of natural gas beneath the seafloor (Hogan, 2013). ?This vast abundance of energy brought ~4,000 offshore oil and gas platforms as well as tens of thousands of miles of pipeline to the gulf (Robertson, 2010). ?Industrializing the Gulf helps our oil and corn production, which is an enormous industry in our country. ?This has hurt the Gulf in the long run, placing severe detrimental problems that are now starting to arise. ?A lot of people do not realize that taking away all of the Gulf’s natural resources are putting the Gulf at a huge risk of loss of biodiversity and promoting other problems that can eventually hurt us. On April 20, 2010 the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and sunk leading to an eighty-seven day long flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. ?This spill made it’s way into the history books as one of the largest accidental marine oil spills in the history of the oil industry. ?This kind of mishap has tragic consequences not only at a financial aspect, but also at the well being of the gulf itself and all that inhabits it. ?It has been estimated that there was a total two hundred million gallons of oil released into the Gulf causing extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats as well as fishing and tourism industries. ?Although it may seem like the financial consequences were most important it is imperative to dive deep and seek the more unnoticed, important problems. ?The oil spill brought up a lot of attention to the Gulf bringing about a lot of projects and funding to help with the recovery. ?However, the Gulf had been silently suffering for decades before the spill. ?With ninety percent of the United State’s offshore drilling taking place in the central and western Gulf this spill put the United State’s economy at a big impairment. ?This however is not the problem; the problem is the health of the Gulf. ?With so much offshore drilling, according to government records, “At least half a million barrels of oil and drilling fluids has been spilled offshore before the gusher that began after the April 20 explosion” (Robertson, 2010). In addition to oil, the Gulf has been suffering from runoff and waste from agricultural sectors and sewage plants that drain into the Mississippi River flowing right down to the Gulf causing the formation of dead zones. ?High levels of nitrogen pollution from agricultural fertilizer inputs about one and a half million tons of it yearly to the Gulf, creating a feeding frenzy among the phytoplankton, leading to eutrophication and eventually a big dead zone. ?Different factories and waste plants also contribute to this runoff, but is easier to regulate because it is point source pollution and we know exactly where it is coming from. ?Agricultural runoff has such a big effect on the Gulf because it is hard to regulate since it is hard to track it’s direct source. ?To reduce this nitrogen load farmers that surround the Mississippi River need to change their agricultural practices, but that brings about a lot of arguments. There are a number of things being done to get the Gulf back to its original, healthy state, like the Clean Water Act, and other environmental protection agency regulations. It is still not enough; ocean pollution is a big problem and just because the Gulf is a huge body of water, does not mean it is big enough to absorb all of our waste. ?We need to do something about oil leakages as well as agricultural runoff in order to save the beauty and wildlife of the Gulf. System Map:-1008380283654500System map elements: Environmental Protection Agency: The United States Environmental Protection Agency has initiated a couple of projects to approach the damages of the Gulf of Mexico. For example, they initiated the Gulf of Mexico Program in 1988 whose mission is to “facilitate collaborative actions to protect, maintain, and restore the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico in ways consistent with the economic well-being of the region” (Binninger, 2014). ?This program uses its ability to engage people in the Gulf region to initiate and execute projects that will help the Gulf move in a more environmental and economical sound direction. ?In addition, ever since agricultural sources of nitrogen and phosphorus have become a major water quality problem the EPA has been implementing its legal declaration to control water pollution. ?They provide grant money for states to start up nonpoint source programs, for example, the Coastal Zone Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990 requires coastal states to manage their nonpoint pollution (Parry, 1998). ?The EPA is ensuring that the goals of the Clean Water Act are met by controlling nutrient pollution sources to stop the problem of eutrophication and dead zones. The EPA is also present in the activity of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance by delegating and leading their plans and procedures that these groups undertake. ?The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force is also a branch under the EPA focusing on the agricultural runoff and other pollutants that enter the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force: This environmental organization that is under the management of the Environmental Protection Agency plays a large part in protecting the waters and ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico. They focus on the large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus that are being added to the Mississippi River basin from agricultural sources and how it is creating a hypoxic zone in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. These zones are areas of oxygen-depleted waters that harm the health of aquatic organisms and can be detrimental to the large fishing industry in the gulf (Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, 2008). The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force created the Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan in 2008, where they are working to improve water quality and reduce hypoxia in the affected areas (Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, 2008). Industrial Enterprises and Agricultural Farmers: the United States has the largest chemical industry in the world. Fertilizers and agricultural compounds still represent a significant amount of the chemical industry revenue (Swift, 1999) and alongside the mechanization of the farms, helped the production of food to increase its productivity. Over the last century the number of farms in the U.S. reduced, while the average farm size increased, indicating the shift from family based agriculture to large-scale mechanized agriculture. Agricultural R&D of fertilizers had an extremely large investment return (Jorgenson & Gollop, 1992). On top of that, the U.S. now exports more than 8 times the amount of agricultural products than it did in 1915 (Dimitri, Effland and Conklin, 2005). Waste Disposal Facilities: The Gulf of Mexico supports a large array of industries that depend on natural resources that include oil and gas production, marine shipping, agriculture, and tourism. The coastal areas are home to many large petroleum refining and chemical production facilities. Almost half of the total on-site disposal and other releases are injected underground into on-site wells. Underground injection is used for the disposal of toxic chemicals like nitrate compounds, ammonia, and acetonitrile (Marinello, 2001). Runoff from agricultural, industrial, and municipal sources into surface waters brings excessive nutrients and toxic pollutants into the Gulf. In these areas, oxygen becomes too low to support aquatic life (Marinello, 2001).Gulf of Mexico Alliance: This is an alliance that focuses on increasing regional collaboration in regards to the pollution affecting the Gulf Coast and surrounding waters. Their mission is to combine the efforts of state and federal agencies to increase funding for the six major pollution problems that are currently present for the Gulf of Mexico, including coastal community resilience, ecosystems integration and assessment, environmental education, habitat conservation and restoration, nutrients and nutrient reduction, as well as water quality (NOAA, 2011). This alliance works together in order to address the problems that plague this region in ways that a single organization or task force can’t. Offshore Oil Regulation: As the US grew economically and rapidly expanded its energy industry in the 1900s, it opened up a new category of risks concerning the environment and the effects oil drilling was having on the ecosystems in the area. However, response to these concerns did not take place overnight. Environmental protection and safety policies seemed to compete with the industry desire to move towards energy independence and revenue generation (National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011). Particularly after the BP oil spill, the federal government began to put into place policies that aimed towards reducing the risk of future accidents, as well as increased the responsibility help by the companies involved. Zoning, planning, and leasing policies have been put into place to increase the rigor companies have to go through to begin oil drilling in an area, including constructing long term plans and abiding to environmental and safety regulations. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Oil Pollution Act (OPA), as well as agencies like the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) were also created to reform current regulation practices and add to the decision making and analysis process of federal agencies when evaluating environmental impact.Oil Drilling: The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most important regions in the US because of the energy resources that are located there. According to the US Energy Information Administration, the Gulf of Mexico offshore oil production accounts for 17% of total US crude oil production. Currently about 1.3 million barrels of oil are being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico per day. Oil drilling has always been “hard, dirty, dangerous work,” that deals with heavy machinery and carries a risk associated with drilling under high pressure over 12,000 feet under the seafloor (National Commission to the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, 2011). Once the oil is obtained in these offshore oil drilling operations, it has to be transported via pumps and pipes under a high risk of accidents like leaks or spills that can have widespread impacts on the ecosystems in the area.Oil Rig Construction Standards: The big Deepwater Horizon oil spill raised a lot of questions about the reliability of Deepwater technology and the industry’s ability to perform when accidents occur. Deepwater Horizon was a 396 by 256 foot oil rig operating in waters up to eight thousand feet, drilling to a maximum of thirty thousand feet (Cleeveland, 2013). ?Although the precise cause of the explosion has still not been indicated, however, at the time of the explosion the production casing was being run and cemented. ?The cementing was to be tested for stability and a cement plug was set to temporarily abandon the well for later completion (Cleeveland, 2013). ?According to the chief of Transocean, the company that owns Deepwater Horizon, “’there was a sudden, catastrophic failure of the cement, the casing or both’” (Cleeveland, 2013). ?Oil rig construction needs to be reinforced and more standardized in order to stop them from being prone to accidents, especially since these accidents will have detrimental consequences. BP Deepwater Oil Spill: The BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in April 2011, when the gas company was preparing to disconnect the Deepwater Horizon oil rig from the Macondo oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion sent over 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf, and had a long lasting economic and environmental effect on the water quality of the Gulf of Mexico. At that time, BP had the most wells in the Gulf of Mexico than any other company, and was one of the leading companies in the world. The explosion killed eleven crew members, and injured many other workers that were on the site at the time. Whether it comes from ships, spills, or natural causes, the world’s oceans have a total petroleum input, “around 380 million gallons per year- a quantity similar to the catastrophic Gulf spill”, according to an article in the New Yorker (Khatchadourian, 2011). The explosion caused a spill of fresh oil, mouse, and tarballs of crude oil into the Gulf waters which had various effects on the plant and animal wildlife in the area, as well was a concern for human health (Cleveland, 2013). A recent study done by David Valentine, a professor at University of California Santa Barbara, showed that years after the oil spill, a “bathtub ring” of about 2 million barrels of oil collected and still remains on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico (Cohen, 2014).Oil Spill Clean Up: A variety of methods were implemented in order to clean up the large amount of oil that spilled into the Gulf, including booms, chemical dispersants, manual clean ups, and controlled burns. The BP oil spill was unique because of the large scale of dispersants used to break up the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been recorded that more than 800,000 gallons of dispersant have been used (US Department of Commerce, 2010). These dispersants were made up of detergents, petroleum distillates, sulfonic acid salts, and other chemicals, which added to the controversial long-term health effects associated with the BP oil spill (Solomon, 2010). When chemical dispersant is added to the water’s surface, the molecules bind to the oil, causing it to break up into droplets in order to break it down and remove it from the water. Later studies showed that the dispersant added to the Gulf remained in the water long after it was applied. These dispersants do not lessen the amount of oil flowing into the environment, but only change the chemical and physical properties of the oil hoping to reduce the effects of the oil. ?Tourism: After the BP oil spill the tourist industry, along with the Gulf, went down hill. ?Before the spill the tourist industry thrived, as people from all over the world wanted to see the “Mediterranean of the Americas.” ?This tourist industry makes about twenty billion dollars annually and also provides tens of thousands of jobs, as well as helps the start up of thousands of businesses (ProjectAware, 2004). ?This income has helped the Gulf’s economy for years, but tourism has also raised concerns about the gradual deterioration of the ecosystems of the Gulf. ?The future harmful effects that tourism is generating has caused different bays, estuaries and wildlife destinations to be constructed as either aquatic preserves, estuaries of national significance, national parks or wildlife refuges in order to further protect the aquatic wildlife. ?Since measures are being taken to preserve the wildlife, the tourism industry will excel and help the Gulf’s economy.Fisheries: The Gulf of Mexico provides about two thirds of the oysters in the United States and is a major source to fisheries for shrimp and crab. Historically, the Gulf region “has produced the greatest amount of seafood by volume and value in the United States” (Upton, 2011). The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico had long-term effects on these marine life food chains and ecosystems, and largely affected the fishery industry in the US. When including wholesale and retail businesses, the Gulf commercial fishing industry supported thousands of jobs, and over $600,000 of revenue. Recreational fisheries also play a huge role in the Gulf economy and coastal community. The BP oil spill caused federal agencies to call the closure of many fisheries, as well as caused the taking of precautionary measures in order to protect the safety of the fish in the area and the health of the humans exposed to them.Gulf of Mexico Water Quality: The Gulf of Mexico has a total area of about 600,000 square miles and links the ports of five southern U.S states (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas) and six Mexican states (Tamaulipas, Vera Cruz, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo) with the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Numerous US and international studies have shown that fertilizer runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus can significantly impact water quality and ecosystem health. Nitrogen and phosphorus both contribute to hypoxia and the decline of the gulf’s water quality because of the fact that sixty percent of the continental U.S drains into the Gulf of Mexico, including outlets from 33 major river systems and 207 estuaries. The gulf is a Mediterranean sea with a maximum depth of approximately 3700 and is the second largest zone of coastal hypoxia (Randall, 1997). The Gulf is home to 24 endangered and threatened species and critical habitats and it is estimated that 50% of its inland and coastal wetlands have been lost (Burkart, 1999).Impacts on Human Health: Crude oil contains hydrocarbons that can cause damage on the nervous system and some cancer forms, such as leukemia. The list of hazardous substances found on crude oil include volatile substances such benzene, toluene, xylene and naphthalene, and other nonvolatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that can affect the population that use fish and other marine organisms as part of their diet. Headaches, nausea, vomiting, cough, respiratory distress and chest pain have been reported as side effects of human contact to crude oil. The dispersants from the cleanups can also have negative impacts on human health: dermatitis, erythema, edema, burning sensations and follicular health have been reported as effects of exposure to the dispersants (Solomon and Janssen, 2010).Nitrogen and Phosphorus Fertilizers: Fertilizers are chemical substances used in agriculture that attempt to distribute nutrients in the field more evenly, which minimizes the effects of pH and salt concentration naturally found in soils. It contains, among other substances, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (Hauck & Stephenson, 1965). Elements such as phosphorus and nitrogen have their concentration in the soil elevated by agricultural practices, working as fertilizers and are likely to be leached away, by bodies of water, such as rivers (Raymond, Oh, Turner, & Broussard, 2008). Nitrogen and phosphorous that has been leached away from the Mississippi river has been linked to eutrophication in the northern Gulf of Mexico, and triggers seasonal hypoxia in that area (McIsaac, David, Gertner & Goolsby, 2001). Agricultural Runoff: The Midwest is the main contributor to the massive “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico because of the chemical runoff from industries and farms that enters the Iowa River, drains into the Mississippi River, and ends up in the Gulf. ?This runoff has a negative impact because of the high concentration of nitrate, one of the principal nutrients generating dead zones in the Gulf (Burkart & James, 1999). ?Corn production plays a major role in the United States’ economy and is one of the most widely produced feed grain. In order to expand corn production many farm groups, as well as the Obama administration are impelling for more ethanol-based fuels, meaning more nitrogen-rich fertilizer pouring into the Mississippi River and eventually dumping into the Gulf (Robertson, 2010). ??In addition, the current nitrogen filled runoff is partly due to farmers that choose to input extra nitrogen in their fertilizer even though it it isn’t necessary as they refer to it as “insurance” Nitrogen (Day, et.all, 2011). ?This nitrogen rich runoff is also maximized from several human induced activities such as grazing, burning, and cultivation. ?And with high precipitation, runoff increases even more, creating more and more nitrogen and phosphorous to flow through the Mississippi River. Mississippi River Basin: The Mississippi River Basin is the largest in the United States but has undergone massive transformations over the past 200 years. The river has been shortened by 229 kilometers in efforts to improve navigation. It has a flood-control system of earthwork levees, revetments, weirs, and channels that have isolated most levering wetlands from the main channel and left them drier (Viel, 1997). A large portion of the river has been converted into farmland that has in turn increased the amount of pollution that enters the watershed. Water quality in the river has most certainly changed this century as a result of the increase in amount of farms surrounding the area and the increase of fertilizer use. ?An increase of nitrogen and phosphorous deposited from the Mississippi river during the late twentieth century has caused eutrophication and severe hypoxia in the shallow waters in the Gulf (Veil, 1997). ?Eutrophication: Eutrophication is defined as “the process by which water bodies are made more eutrophic through an increase in their nutrient supply” (Nekola, et.all, 1999). ?Increased amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous that travel through agricultural runoff increases the abundance of aquatic plants and algae, creating a highly eutrophic ecosystem. ?The excessive amount of nutrients overflows taking up all of the oxygen coming from nonpoint sources and point sources. ?Nonpoint sources means nutrients are diffused, making it harder to regulate, and point sources are localized and is easy to monitor and control (Nekola, et.all, 1999). If the algae utilize all of the oxygen, the other species do not have enough oxygen to survive, causing them to die off. ?All that is left is a highly algae filled body of water. ?Agricultural runoff flows from different areas into the Mississippi River and dumps large quantities of nutrients into the Gulf of Mexico causing the presence of dead zones. Dead Zones: Dead zones or hypoxic zones occur when dissolved oxygen levels fall below two millimeters of oxygen per liter (Diaz & Rosenburg, 2008). ?It’s been observed that hypoxia tends to be overlooked until it affects higher-level ecosystems, like fish or other marine animals that people catch. Climate change is also an important factor when it comes to the occurrence of these dead zones. ?Climate change is known for increasing stratification and warming, and also causes rainfall patterns to change drastically. This causes an intensification of discharges of freshwater along with agricultural nutrients. It has been predicted that there will be a twenty percent increase in river discharge for the Mississippi river, leading an elevation of nutrient loading and an increase in primary production by fifty percent; it is also predicted that there will be a thirty to sixty percent decrease in dissolved oxygen (Diaz & Rosenburg, 2008). ?Since dead zones are occurring more it has been ranked as a major global environmental problem along with overfishing and habitat loss. Aquatic Wildlife: The Gulf consists of over fifteen thousand different types of species and has huge ecologic diversity, which has led to the creation of many habitat and wildlife preservation areas. ?It is home to key natural resources such as the nesting waterfowl, colonial waterbird rookeries, sea turtles, and fisheries (Hogan, 2013). ?Since the area of the Gulf is large, ?it’s region is presented as ecoregions, large areas with similar ecosystems. ?It’s diversity consists of barrier islands, hypersaline lagoons, coral reefs, swamps, beaches, and much more. ?There are many endangered species that live in the Gulf, and with the oil spills and runoff, they soon may become extinct. ?Species like Kemp’s Ridley turtle nests in the Gulf’s barrier islands and is the most endangered sea turtle in the world (Hogan, 2013). Over two hundred species are in need of protection, making the toxicity of the Gulf a major problem.Inter-relationships between elements: Agricultural runoff → Mississippi River Basin: negative relationship, as the input of agricultural runoff builds up in the Mississippi River Basin, it generates negative effects.Aquatic wildlife → Fisheries: positive relationship, a stable and healthy aquatic wildlife can increase the activity of fisheries.Aquatic wildlife → Tourism: positive relationship, a stable and healthy aquatic wildlife can increase the ecological touristic activities, increasing their revenue.BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill → Oil clean up: positive relationship, the greater the oil spill, the greater the oil clean up will be.BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill → Tourism: negative relationship, the greater the oil spill, the less people will want to visit the area. BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill → Water quality: negative relationship, the oil spill decreases the water quality by adding up chemical compounds that should not be in the ocean surface.BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill → Aquatic wildlife: negative relationship, oil spills have chemical compounds that can harm the safety and health of wildlife.Dead Zones → Aquatic wildlife: negative relationship, dead zones reduce the amount of available dissolved oxygen and reduce the efficiency of primary producers.Dead Zones → Food chains: negative relationship, hypoxia condition generated by this phenomenon can impact phytoplankton in a region, disrupting the trophic flow.Dead Zones → Water quality: negative relationship, the increase of nutrient pollution in the water can create unhealthy conditions.EPA → Gulf of Mexico Alliance: positive relationships in a reinforcing loop, as the EPA and the Gulf of Mexico Alliance have similar goals regarding reducing levels of water pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, their outputs impact each other.EPA → Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force: positive relationships in a reinforcing loop, EPA and Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force endorses a more environmentally sound use of fertilizers, avoiding eutrophication and dead zones.EPA → Offshore oil regulation: positive relationship, the EPA reinforces the required standards for oil regulation.EPA → Waste disposal facilities: positive relationship, EPA regulations can improve or increase the treatment of hazardous chemical compounds before they are buried or disposed.Fisheries → Impacts on human health: positive relationship, fisheries provide not only a source of food but a profitable activity in the region, allowing fishermen and their families to have access to more sanitary and health habits.Food chains → Fisheries: positive relationship, the more stable and productive food chains are, the greater the health of fisheries and its consumers. Gulf of Mexico Alliance → Aquatic wildlife: positive relationship, the greater the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, the more they can contribute to the benefit of aquatic wildlife in the Gulf. Gulf of Mexico Alliance → Water quality: positive relationship, the Gulf Alliance addresses environmental problems such as nutrients and nutrient reduction, which benefits water quality.Industrial enterprises and farmers → Nitrogen and Phosphorus fertilizers: positive relationship, as the enterprises and farmers increase their profit by using fertilizers the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers increase as well. Mississippi River Basin → Eutrophication: positive relationship, the amount of Nitrogen and Phosphorus can trigger or maintain eutrophication events.Mississippi River Basin → Water quality: negative relationship, the amount of nutrient pollution in this body of water can generate undesirable environmental impacts.Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force → Dead Zones: negative relationship: the greater the Task Force, the more regulations they can implement to avoid/decrease dead zones. Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force → Industrial Enterprises and Farmers: negative relationship, the task force can reduce the input of fertilizers, reducing the production.Nitrogen and Phosphorous fertilizers → Agricultural runoff: positive relationship, the greater the use of fertilizers, the bigger the chances of those substances eventually end up directly or indirectly (contaminating the soil than the river) in bodies of water.Offshore oil drilling → Oil rig construction standards: positive relationship, the more offshore oil drilling, the greater the oil rig construction standards should be implemented. Offshore oil regulation → Offshore oil drilling: negative relationship, the more strict the regulations are, the harder it is to follow the regulation guidelines and operate offshore.Oil cleanup → Impacts on human health: positive relationship, as chemical compounds are taken away from the water, the safety of water tends to improve for human activities.Oil cleanup → Water quality: positive relationship, as chemical compounds that are harmful for human health are taken away from the water, the quality of water tends to improve.Oil cleanup → Aquatic wildlife: positive relationship, as the quality of water tends to improve, it causes less negative impact on the region’s wildlife.Oil rig construction standards → BP Deep Water Horizon oil spill: negative relationship, the more strict and effective the regulations are, the less likely spills are to happen.Waste disposal facilities → Mississippi River Basin: negative relationship, the waste disposal facilities can contaminate the Mississippi River basin directly or indirectly.Waste disposal facilities → Water quality: negative relationship, the waste disposal facilities can compromise the bodies of water with pollutants.Problem and solution treesFor our first focal problem, we decided to focus on the increase of eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico. Eutrophication is one of the most widespread environmental issues near the Gulf, and is an unnatural enrichment of two plant nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus. The excess nutrients are usually caused by agricultural runoff coming down from the Mississippi River. This causes an increased growth of algae, and other floating plants throughout the Gulf. “When the plants die they decompose due to bacterial and fungi activity; in the process oxygen is consumed and the nutrients are released together with carbon dioxide and energy… [The Gulf often becomes] oversaturated with oxygen due to the amount of plants. The oxygen surplus is released to the atmosphere and no longer available to decompose organic matter. This causes oxygen depletion or anoxia...” (Ryther, 2009). The following Problem/Solution Trees show our example of the different variables due to the increase/decrease of eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico.Increase in Eutrophication Problem Tree:Decrease in Eutrophication Solution Tree:Our second focal problem is focused on the BP Deep Horizon Oil Spill. This is a crucial problem because of the fact that scientists still not fully understand the full effects of the estimated 170 million gallons of oil that spilled into the Gulf. This means that it is still, to this day, affecting us as well as its surrounding environments. This spill is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history that destroyed vast ecosystems and degraded the Gulf’s water quality. More than 8,000 birds, sea turtles, and marine mammals were found injured or dead in the six months after the spill. Though the oil is no longer promptly visible on the surface, it is not completely gone (Gillis, 2010). Scientists are still finding large amounts of oil on the Gulf floor and we will not see the full extent of impacts for many years, which is why we chose to focus our focal problem with this spill. Increase in BP Deep Horizon Oil Spill Problem Tree:Decrease in BP Deep Horizon Oil Spill Solution Tree:Comparison of Three Potential Strategies for Intervening in our System When intervening in a large system that links together multiple elements across different industries, it can be challenging choosing the correct point at which to intervene in order to solve a focal problem within the system. In her writing, Donella Meadows describes complex systems as “counterintuitive,” particularly because the social systems that have been constructed and developed over the years have become part of the human paradigm; therefore in order to solve an issue deeply embedded into these social systems, it takes critical thinking that questions the paradigms that society has set up over time. In order to spark this process of thought, Meadows outlined the 12 most effective places in which to intervene in a system (Meadows, 1999).In terms of ocean pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, many factors have to be taken into consideration when choosing an effective intervention strategy for improving the water quality in the Gulf. Two very large industries, energy and agriculture, play a role in the contribution of pollution to the Gulf waters, leaving the possibilities of intervention very broad. When considering the oil industry, which is a risky business in itself, companies must incorporate environmental responsibility into their practices, follow regulations, and make sure they are up to date on safe technology in order to reduce the risk of accidents and catastrophic oil spills. The agricultural industry faces different issues when managing the inputs and outputs of their fields, following regulations, and making profit. Three potential intervention strategies for intervening in this multi- faceted system include working with the size of buffers in the system, controlling information flows to ultimately change the mindset of those within the system, and changing the rules and incentives in the system.One strategy for intervening in the system is through the use of buffers to stabilize the flow of input and output in the system. Because the use of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers are such a large part of the agricultural industry, this strategy could make use of literal vegetative buffers to slow runoff, filter the pollutants in the water that flows through the system, and ultimately reduce the amount of chemical infused water that ends up in the Gulf of Mexico. This intervention strategy adds another element into the system that works towards stabilizing the amount of agricultural runoff that flows through the Mississippi river and into the Gulf, affecting the wildlife and ecosystems that exist in its waters. By adding these buffers in, the capacity of the system increases and can neutralize some of the effects of the farms and industries that line the coastal area. However, placing such an addition into the current system can cost a lot to build and maintain (Dexter 2010).The primary reason why there tend to be so many barriers to working towards the protection of the environment, particularly in the US, is because of the values of economic progress and industrial development that are ingrained in today’s society. Because sometimes changing the paradigm is the hardest way to intervene in a complex social and environmental system, a potential method of intervening in this system is by using information flow to increase the transparency of processes that have an impact on the environment like in the oil and agricultural industries. If more information was available to the public and other agencies about industrial practices and the impacts of toxic materials on the environment, perhaps there would be a different attitude towards the importance of this kind of monitoring, and could trigger a push towards improvements in effectiveness of waste management. Currently economic progress and revenue is a core motive behind mass production and developments in new technology; what if environmental sustainability was one of the most important industry standards next to production levels and income? Like in the tragedy of the commons, the lack of feedback from the environment can lead to a collapse of society as we know it. Therefore by providing a source of information about impacts and holding others accountable for their impacts, information flows can trigger a large change in the system in the long term.Another site for intervention can be through changing the rules of the system. This is potentially the most promising intervention strategy, as it takes the responsibility of regulation into the hands of the government, and places the responsibility of following these regulations on companies. As Meadows mentions in her writing, enforcing rules “forces nations into positive loops,” and changes the standards to which these companies are working. The addition of rules also opens up the possibility of offering incentives for following these rules, and adds constraints to company practices that can ultimately have large impacts on the environment they interact with. These rules and incentives have an immediate short term impact as well as a long running impact on future practices and standards. This type of strategy requires a strong backing to implement, and requires a commitment to long term monitoring. This can be the most promising strategy for the problem of pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, particularly because current regulation is lax and not specific in targeting the responsibility that companies hold in contributing to the issue. However, the implementation of these rules should not be taken as debilitating; therefore it is important to convey with this change the importance of these measures and their long term impact on the well-being of industry and the economy.Implementation PlanOur plan is to implement a large-scale interstate nutrient trading system in the Mississippi River Basin in order to reduce the abundance of nutrients that has created a hypoxic area in the Gulf of Mexico. This dead zone full of oxygen-depleted water not only affects the biodiversity of the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but it also affects the very profitable fishing industry in this area. Most of the nitrogen and phosphorous nutrient pollution that is causing the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico comes from animal manure and the use of chemical fertilizers from point and nonpoint polluters (Dexter, 2010).We hope to target point and nonpoint polluters with this nutrient cap-and-trade system. Point sources are industrial enterprises that directly pollute the Mississippi River from a single point or pipe, while nonpoint sources are agricultural farmers whose pollution enters the watershed over a large area (Dexter, 2010). Agricultural non-point sectors are able to reduce the amount of nutrient pollution they produce more easily than their industrial point counterpoints. So in this sense, agricultural enterprises can sell the nutrient credits they do not end up using to industrial point sources who find it more cost effective to buy these credits instead of investing in new technology that is more expensive. Not only will these two groups be positively affected by this change and new regulation, but so will the companies involved in the Gulf of Mexico fishery industry because reduced nutrient pollution will increase the fish population and help the industry flourish. The primary mechanism that this kind of implementation plan targets is incentives. We would impose this cap on nutrient pollution disincentive to discourage point and nonpoint polluters from allowing access pollution from entering the watershed. But we will also enact positive incentives like praise and recognition to those companies and farmers that do comply as well as identify those that decreased their amount of pollution at the highest rate. Our implementation plan will be effective because it will address all areas that need to be met in order for it to work. It will be large enough, since it will be an interstate regulation that will affect many state governments but at the same time not be too large for it to not be feasible. It will be a match to barriers because many individuals are not aware of nutrient pollution, and once this plan brings attention to the problem, farmers and industries will be motivated to make a change in order to not receive complaints from the surrounding citizens. It will attract attention to the nutrient problem because most people do not think about an abundance of nitrogen and phosphorous as an issue and the nutrient cap will bring about more awareness to industries and farmers. It will be credible because we will submit this idea to the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force, which is under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency, and go through that organization in order to implement this new cap-and-trade system. It will be politically acceptable because each sector involved in this implementation plan will benefit from it, whether it be an increase in profit or a fiscal saving from investing in new technology. Although those involved might be tempted to cheat this system, as in most other new regulation implementations, the benefits from correctly partaking in this nutrient cap will outweigh the potential savings and benefits one might get from cheating. To reverse the growth of the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the United States will need to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution that washes into the Mississippi River by approximately 40% (Dexter, 2010). This nutrient trading system is a market-based mechanism that will help both point and nonpoint polluters cost effectively meet their water quality goals. Our focus will be on agricultural nonpoint polluters. Since pollution from polluters stationed on the lower parts of the Mississippi River and closer to the Gulf of Mexico have a higher effect on the water quality and aquatic wildlife, this is where we will encourage selling of nutrient credits. Our plan is to create a limit of the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous that each sector is allowed to drain into the ocean, and if they go under their set limit, they can sell their unused credits to industrial enterprises that need them. For the sake of this implementation plan, we will define “One Nutrient Credit” as 1 pound of a specific nutrient (nitrogen or phosphorous). The polluters that are higher up the Mississippi River have a smaller effect on nutrient pollution, so this is where they can afford to actually have a slightly increased amount of nitrogen and phosphorous being emitted. This trading system will allow high-cost producers to purchase nutrient credits from those who can lower their pollution rates at a low cost by switching to or adding an alternative waste filtration system. Possible alternative systems for these non-point producers are installing vegetation buffers that will naturally filter out the excess nutrients on its own, changing their plantation practices to use crops that will not require as much fertilizer, or change their fertilization practices by extensively planning out exactly when they will need to add fertilizer and when it would cause the least amount of pollution from run off into the Mississippi River (Dexter, 2010). In order to implement this large-scale plan, we will go through the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force, as it is a branch of the Environmental Protection Agency and thus has federal government regulation. After we present our nutrient trading plan to this task force, it will be their duty to contact the relevant players in this system, including the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, as well as the state governments that the point and nonpoint polluters are from. Then, the state governments will contact the individual pollution sectors and inform them on the new nutrient trading program, as well as alternatives to the system if they believe they want to be selling nutrient credits for a profit. Then each pollution sector will submit their nutrient management plans to the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force. This will inform the task force on exactly what their plan is and whether they decided to be a credit seller or credit buyer. This information will also help the task force create a specialized cap on nutrient pollution for that individual sector. Once a year, a member from the enforcement managers will go to each pollution sector and assess the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous is being emitted from that specific site and determine if they are complying with the nutrient cap. Although this will be most of the enforcement of the cap on a yearly basis, we believe there will be enough incentive to oblige with the new regulation because of the increased benefits each polluter will acquire. And if for some reason there are violations to the new rule, we will have to penalize the entities that did not follow protocol and charge them with fines. The tentative timeline we have for the implementation of the nutrient trading system to reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico is stated below. In total, the nutrient cap regulation will have one year of planning and preparation, and five years of implementation. The final assessment will be held in January of 2021. January 2015: Submit implementation plan to the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task ForceFebruary 2015: The task force will review the plan and offer any suggestions for alterations or improvementsJune 2015: The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force will give the information to each of the state governments involved September 2015: State governments will contact the industrial enterprises and agricultural farmers and create a nutrient management planDecember 2015: All nutrient management plans from all industrial and agricultural sectors submitted to state governments and relayed to the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task ForceJanuary 2016: Official start to implementing each nutrient management plan and the beginning of the nutrient cap regulationDecember 2016: Annual nitrogen and phosphorous pollution assessment by regulation enforcement officers from the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Nutrient Task Force (Will continue for five years)January 2021: Final assessment of nutrient trading regulation to see if there has been a reduction of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution by at least 40%. References (APA)Buckart, M.R., & James, D.E. (1999). Agricultural-Nitrogen Contributions to Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Journal of Environmental Quality, 28(3), 850-859.Cai, Y., Rooker, J. R., Gill, G. A., & Turner, J. P. (2007). Bioaccumulation of mercury in pelagic fishes from the northern Gulf of Mexico. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 64(3), 458-469.Center for Biological Diversity. (2009). Dispersants. Retrieved from Cleveland,C.(2013). Deepwater Horizon oil spill . Retrieved from Cohen, Julie. (2014). Where did all the Oil go? The UCSB Current. Retrieved from Jr., J.W., Gilliam, J.W., Groffman, P.M., Hey, D.L., Mitsch, W.J., Randall, G.W., Wang, N. (2001). Reducing Nitrogen Loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin: Strategies to Counter a Persistent Ecological Problem: Echotechnology. BioScience, 51(5), 373-388.Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and the Future of Offshore Drilling. (2012). Encyclopedia of the EarthDexter, Jessica. 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American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 745-750.Khatchadourian, Raffi. (2011). The Gulf War: Where There Any Heros in the BP Oil Disaster?. The New Yorker. Retrieved from Marinello, S. A., F.L. Lyon, and W.T. Ballantine, 2001, “Disposal of E&P Waste by Injection: An Assessment of Technology and Regulatory Impacts,” SPE 66521, presented at the Exploration & Production Environmental Conference, San Antonio, TX, February 26-28.McIsaac, G. F., David, M. B., Gertner, G. Z., & Goolsby, D. A. (2001). Eutrophication: Nitrate flux in the Mississippi river. Nature, 414(6860), 166-167.Meadows, D. (1999). Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System. The Sustainability Issue.Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force. 2008. Gulf Hypoxia Action Plan 2008 for Reducing, Mitigating, and Controlling Hypoxia in the Northern Gulf of Mexico and Improving Water Quality in the Mississippi River Basin. Washington, DC.National Ocean Service, NOAA. 2011. The Gulf of Mexico at a Glance: A Second Glance. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Commerce.Nekola, J.C., Smith V.H., Tilman, G.D. (1999). Eutrophication: impacts of excess nutrient inputs on freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems. Environmental Pollution, 100(1-3), 179-196.Oceana. (2014). Oil Pollution: Overview. Retrieved December 11, 2014 from , P. A., Oh, N. H., Turner, R. E., & Broussard, W. (2008). Anthropogenically enhanced fluxes of water and carbon from the Mississippi River. Nature, 451(7177), 449-452.Solomon, G. M., & Janssen, S. (2010). Health effects of the Gulf oil spill. JAMA, 304(10),1118-1119.Swift, T. K. (1999). Where is the chemical industry going?. Business Economics, 34, 32-41.Randall, G.W and J.S. Schepers, 1997. Nitrogen in the Mississippi River Basin: sources, and factors affecting loss of nitrate to the river. Pp 85-93. In: Proc. North Central Extension-Industry Soil Fertility Conference. Vol. 13. St. Louis, MO.Ryther, H, John. ECOLOGY: Controlling Eutrophication: Nitrogen and PhosphorusScience 20 February 2009: 1014-1015.Robertson, Cambell. (2010, July 29) Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been Dumping Site. International New York Times, p. A1.U.S. Department of Commerce. (2010). NOAA Oil Spill Response: Oil Spill DispersantApplication and Monitoring. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Upton, H.F. (2011). The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the Gulf of Mexico Fishing Industry. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from , J.A., 1997, “Costs for Offsite Disposal of Nonhazardous Oil Field Wastes: Salt Caverns versus other Disposal Methods,” prepared for DOE’s, Office of Fossil Energy, April; also published by DOE- National Petroleum Technology Office. Pp. 56. ................
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