I’ve heard that agricultural pesticides are a leading cause of water pollution. Can using synthetic fertilizer be contributing to the problem?
Absolutely. NASA scientists estimate that lawn run-off contributes up to 20 percent of the water pollution that causes “the Dead Zone” at the basin of the Mississippi River in the Gulf of Mexico. “The Dead Zone” is an area the size of Rhode Island where no fish or sea life can exist due to eutrification, a term used to describe the removal of oxygen from the water because of excessive amounts of decomposed organic matter and nutrients. Also, studies on Long Island show that up to 60 percent of synthetic nitrogen applied to lawns ends up contaminating ground water.
