Nitrogen Problem?

Our problem with nitrogen.  Are the water boards asleep at the switch?

All creatures need the life sustaining nutrient, nitrogen.  Lucky for us nitrogen comprises 78% of the earth’s atmosphere; unlucky for us it is in an unusable chemical form.  Indebted to the unique ability of a few microbes with the ability to ‘fix’ nitrogen into a usable form, we are able to eat green plants (or the animals that eat them) to satisfy our nitrogen requirements.   As impressive as these microbes are, they can only do so much – there is a theoretical limit to how much useable nitrogen they can produce.      Fortunately, we have the energy intensive Haber-Bosch process that allows us to synthesize usable nitrogen.  But, like any excess, there is a downside.

We know that ammonia, a form of nitrogen, kills fish [1]. We know that too much nitrogen kills babies [2].  We know too much nitrogen is bad for any creature that breaths oxygen, say ... dairy cows.  Too much nitrogen is even bad for plants [3] (it ‘burns’ them or encourages them to grow madly rather than flower and fruit).  We know that nitrogen/nitrates/nitrites contamination is pervasive throughout California [4].  You can look to see here [5], if your water is polluted.

Yet, the State Water Resources Control Board, with its robust legal authority, vast technical and legal resources, extensive data, and significant clout is doing nothing to regulate the problem and even less to require clean-up of nitrogen pollution.  There is no excuse.  But that doesn’t stop them from trying excuses. 

In a recent California Watch [4] article one Central Valley  Regional Water Board manager denied a charge that the Regional Board allows nitrogen pollution by declaring nitrogen pollution to be in the ‘best interest’ of Californians.  Then insinuated the charge was simply the private opinion of an employee but does not reflect the regional board opinion.  To paraphrase Senator Al Franken, [6] the manager is entitled to his own opinions, not his own facts. The fact is the Regional Board routinely makes determinations that the permits it issues, including permits to pollute, are in the ‘best interest’ of Californians.  Here are some:

The economic prosperity of Central Valley communities benefits the people of the State...Therefore, the economic benefits derived from this low-cost, streamlined form of regulation support allowing limited, localized groundwater degradation as long as the terms of the Basin Plan are met.  Fact Finding #32 [7]

Limited degradation of high-quality groundwater by some of the typical waste constituents released with discharge from a winery (after effective source control, treatment, and control) may be consistent with maximum benefit to the people of the State at appropriate sites. Fact Finding #55 [8]

Degradation of groundwater by some of the typical waste constituents released with discharge from a food processing plant after effective source reduction, treatment, and control, and considering the best efforts of the Discharger and magnitude of degradation, is of maximum benefit to the people of the State. Hilmar Cheese aids in the economic prosperity of the region by directly employing over 700 workers, it provides incomes for numerous surrounding dairies, and provides a tax base for local and county governments. Fact Finding #56 [9]

Meanwhile, across town at the State Water Board, at least one manager charged with addressing the nitrate issue is not “staying awake at night” worrying about how to make things right. Clearly he doesn’t live in East Orosi (Tulare County) where the family profiled in the California Watch article contends with nitrate-tainted water at three times the health limit.  Clearly his kids do not attend Orosi High School, and clearly his kids are not forced to brush their teeth with bottled water.

With all of that Haber-Bosch derived wasted nitrogen floating around in our water, it is obvious we’ve become gluttonous in our nitrogen consumption and complacent about managing this fossil-fuel derived resource and protecting our environment. There is no excuse for turning a blind eye to the problem while people are allowed to suffer.  The water board has all the tools they need to turn the ship around.  All it takes is for the Water Boards to wake up and develop the will to make things right.