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Disaster

Mississippi Flooding to Create Gulf Dead Zone

Fertilizer and waste to prompt massive algae bloom.

cheats/2011/06/03/mississippi-flooding-to-create-gulf-dead-zone/mississippi-flood_jo3ga4

Rogelio V. Solis / AP Photo

The Gulf of Mexico can't catch a break. Last summer there was the BP spill, and now a toxic brew of farm chemicals and waste swept up by the flooded Mississippi is threatening to create the largest dead zone ever. Dead zones have occurred in the gulf since the 1970s. Since 1998 the EPA has been encouraging farm states along the Mississippi to set limits on chemical runoff, but to the frustration of downstream states, few have done so.

Read it at The New York Times

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