Suffocating Our Water

By Raul Ramos Jr.

Too much of anything isn’t always good. A phrase very common in humans, and as I’m seeing, water alike. Agricultural drainage poses a high threat to coastal waters with its highly, nutrient concentrated runoff. With the randomness of nonpoint water sources, it is difficult to regulate which nutrients, and how much of them enter our coastal waters.

The high excess of phosphorus that comes from agriculture flows into thriving coastal water and becomes the driving force for the proliferation of algae. Once algae blooms, the algae block off sunlight entering the water. Once the light source is removed from these waters, the plant life at the bottom dies, as well as the algae. Lastly, the algae sink to the bottom and becomes food for bacteria. The consumption of the algae causes the bacteria to give off CO2 as a by-product and place the water in a state of hypoxia. Resulting in larger life forms such as fish to ultimately die as well.

A way to combat the high amount of phosphorus in surface water is through electrocoagulation using iron and aluminum electrodes. This method will allow scrap metal to be used to conduct hydrolysis in these eutrophic waters and precipitate the phosphate into a less bio available form. Compared to the current modes of phosphate filtration, this method creates a smaller footprint and a more practical fight against eutrophic water. 

References

Removal of Soluble Phosphorus from Surface Water Using Iron (Fe-Fe) and Aluminum (Al-Al) Electrodes
T.R. Devlin, A. di Biase, V. Wei, M. Elektorowicz, and J. A. Oleszkiewicz

Environmental Science & Technology 2017

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