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t1_ja9nku9 wrote

Reply to comment by in ELI5: Why is it that when fertilizers make their way into waterways, all the oxygen disappears, killing the fish? by

The best preventions for excess fetilizer runoff are

Not using more than needed

Not spreading during wet weather

Ensuring creeks and streams next to the fields are well vegetated around the sides to slow the runoff, absorb nutrients, and slow the water in the creek which slows down the nutrients that do still get in.

There are other more complicsted methods but most follow those guidelines.

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t1_ja9u78b wrote

>Not spreading during wet weather

Farmers will respond: "Farming doesn't wait for weather"

So to get them to comply you need some laws, monitoring (water testing, sensors), and enforcement vehicle (serious fines that help pay for the monitoring).

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t1_jaa2cvd wrote

There often are laws and regulations around spreading and even for riparian zones (vegetation next to streams). The places with a lack of regulations for this are often the places nutrient run off is a signifcant issue in watersheds. A lot of the monitoring for my area is done by local watershed conservation groups who share their data with other authorities or authorities in their organization. They often work together with policy makers to find a good balance for the watershed and the economy.

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t1_jabbqj1 wrote

You would think that fertilizer is expensive and you wouldn’t want to let it go to waste by running off places that won’t help you grow your cash crops.

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t1_jaakvha wrote

But what about cleanup, past prevention

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t1_jaav27f wrote

Nutrient clean up is incredibly hard. The life in the water uses the nutrients quickly and exponentially multiply. Watershed restoration can help reduce impacts by increasing wetland and stream health and allowing these ecosystems to take up more nutirents before they enter the lake or ocean. These strategies can take a few years to fully reestablish and must be protected and maintained from invasive species or erosion removing the vegetated portions.

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