More corn for ethanol hurts the Gulf

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A national agriculture expert says growing corn in the Midwest for green fuel could increase pollution downriver and contribute to a "dead zone" that forms each summer in the Gulf of Mexico.

Gary Mast says the country is in a dilemma. He says the nation wants food and fuel and wants it produced environmentally soundly.

The problem is that corn needs more nitrogen fertilizer than other crops. So more corn means more nitrogen fertilizer and runoff carrying the fertilizer fuels the growth of microscopic organisms that then die, fall to the bottom and decompose, using up the oxygen there.

Mast is a Department of Agriculture representative on a national task force created in 1997 to find ways to reduce the runoff of nutrients.

He summarized the problem to the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, which environmentalists and others criticized during a public comment period for failing to do much of anything.

The dead zone has averaged about 48-hundred square miles since 1990. The record -- 8,500 square miles -- was in 2002. Last year's covered about 6,662 square miles -- about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island together.

Matt Rota is the water resources program director of the Gulf Restoration Network. He's among those who say the task force hasn't done enough. He says he supports getting off of oil, but letting more fertilizer wash down the Mississippi would be robbing Peter to pay Paul.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)