Brickstead Dairy, one of the partner farms working to reduce phosphorus pollution, has regenerated their soil through no-till farming and cover crops. | Provided
Brickstead Dairy, one of the partner farms working to reduce phosphorus pollution, has regenerated their soil through no-till farming and cover crops. | Provided
Over the past few years, high amounts of phosphorus has contaminated the East River watershed around Green Bay and the Sustainability Commission is looking to fix it.
A 2016 report from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources found that approximately 26,086 pounds of phosphorus enters the water every year, according to The Green Bay Press Gazette. The chemical is found in various kinds of fertilizers including manure and causes algae growth.
Julia Noordyk, a water quality outreach specialist at the University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute, told Green Bay Reporter that most of the phosphorus pollution comes from agricultural runoff.
"The East River is a tributary to the Fox River and the largest percentage of phosphorus comes from agricultural runoff," Noordyk told Green Bay Reporter. "In our region, we have a lot of dairy farms and one of the ways to use the manure is to spread it on farm fields and have the crops take up the manure. In our region, we have so many cows though that we have more manure than the land can handle. And then when it rains and snows, there's runoff there."
Noordyk said that farmers and agricultural partners are working to implement conservation farming techniques to help reduce pollution, but that no one really knows how long until it will take until there's an improvement in water quality.
In response to the pollution, Wisconsin has imposed a ban on phosphorous fertilizer for residential areas throughout the state, Noordyk said.
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