Newsgram

According to a recent article from 1 Mississippi, Environment Missouri found 12.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals, such as nitrogen and phosphorous, flow into the Mississippi River annually. Since 40% of the water that falls on the U.S. ends up in the Mississippi River, the excess chemicals eventually cause the largest dead zone in the country in the Gulf of Mexico. What can we as individuals do to improve water quality? We can take the responsibility to not over fertilize our lawns and to use phosphorus-free fertilizer.

Over fertilization is bad for the water, but it can also damage our lawn and lead to:

• Greater vulnerability to lawn disease
• Greater insect damage
• Burning of roots or foliage
• Lower drought resistance

You can save time and money by testing your soil first to see if fertilizer is necessary. By testing the soil you can prevent excess fertilizer runoff from entering our local water ways, you can reduce the cost of filtering drinking water, and you can reduce the stress of the dead zone on our neighbors to the south.

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