EPA Proposal May Help Save the Sturgeon

From a post by Tony Hagen (editor@newjersey.sierraclub.org) 

With sturgeon on the brink of extinction in the Delaware River, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has introduced a draft rule (graphic above) that would ease one of the threats to this highly sensitive—some might say “canary”—fish. The EPA plans to set limits on how low oxygen levels can drop in the river.

Survival rates of Atlantic sturgeon and shortnose sturgeon tend to drop as dissolved oxygen levels decline. The EPA believes it can improve conditions with tighter controls on discharges of sewage and industrial waste. 

Anthropogenic activity (human waste), combined with warmer temperatures, causes algae to proliferate, and when algae die, their decomposition consumes oxygen in the river. This causes hypoxia, or oxygen-starved environments, which are especially harmful to sturgeon. 

Heavy sewage discharge from the Philadelphia area has been a chief cause of this problem. Also, nutrients flowing into the Delaware River from farming, golf courses, and lawn maintenance in neighborhoods along the Delaware River also contribute to the growth of algae and hypoxia. 

read more at sierraclub.org/new-jersey/blog/2024/03/epa-proposal-may-help-save-sturgeon