Sulfate Use In FL Ag. Giving Everglades Extra Helping Of Methylmercury

[hatrack]

The use of sulfate in agricultural areas near the Florida Everglades is creating an enormous mercury problem — with seemingly no end in sight.

The Florida Everglades are often thought of as the state’s wildest and most untamed area, well-protected and far from the grind of urban civilization, a lush wetland with a folkloric reputation that separates it from the hustle and bustle of nearby Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

Some of the state’s most ubiquitous creatures call the area home: manatees, alligators, wading birds. But lurking below the surface, amid the highly diverse flora and fauna, is a surprisingly large amount of a notoriously toxic substance: methylmercury. According to scientists, the methylmercury issue rivals other better-known ecological issues in the state, like nutrient overload in Florida waterways. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen have long been thought of as villains in Florida waterways, due to their capacity to breed toxic algal blooms that lead to fish and dolphin kills.

Sulfate is often used as a means to kill those noxious algal blooms. In this process, sulfate (sulfur combined with oxygen) is added directly to water, eventually finding its way into Stormwater Treatment Areas, manmade wetlands that are specifically designed to filter pollution before it enters the Everglades.

The problem, according to scientists, is that the Stormwater Treatment Areas (known as “STAs”) only filter so much. “These STAs are not designed to filter sulfate. They’re designed to filter phosphorus,” says Dr. Melodie Naja, a water quality scientist at the Everglades Foundation, a nonprofit that aims to restore and protect the greater Everglades ecosystem.

EDIT

http://floridaindependent.com/27200/everglades-mercury-methylmercury-sulfate-runoff/

[Angry Dragon]

1. I find it interesting to see all the different ways man finds

to destroy his home......... Some call it Earth, some Terra

[eppur_se_muova]

2. Law of Unintended Consequences strikes again.

Memo: "Let's dump a lot of XXX into the soil" does not, in general, solve anything without creating more problems.

[Nihil]

3. So true ...

> Memo: "Let's dump a lot of XXX into the soil" does not, in general,
> solve anything without creating more problems.

Not even sure that it's only "in general" ... I can't think of any
good counter-example at the moment ...

:-(