June 11

The U.S. EPA plans to award as much as $4.2 million in targeted watershed grants to reduce the hypoxic zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The agency is soliciting proposals that will use water quality trading programs to reduce nutrient loads, particularly from the Ohio River, the Upper Mississippi River and the Lower Mississippi River. These three sub-basins provide the most nutrients to the Gulf, contributing to the hypoxic zone, an oxygen-depleted area that cannot support aquatic life.

Excess nutrients come from a range of sources, including runoff from developed land, atmospheric deposition, soil erosion, agricultural fertilizers, and sewage and industrial discharges.

"This is seed money to grow an innovative solution to nutrient pollution and cut the size of the Gulf of Mexico´s dead zone," said Assistant Administrator for Water Benjamin H. Grumbles.

Market-based approaches like water quality trading that use pollutant cap and trade programs can accelerate the restoration of the Gulf and help achieve major reductions in pollution at lower costs, according to the EPA.

Applicants must submit grant proposals by Sept. 9.

More information about the Targeted Watersheds Grants program is available online at www.epa.gov/twg.

Contact Waste News senior reporter Bruce Geiselman at (330) 865-6172 or bgeiselman@crain.com

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