Research shows nitrogen is accumulating in soil – creating health risks like “blue baby syndrome” and environmental dead zones in rivers and oceans
If there will be water after our cilizational disrespect to water usage (by inefficient agriculture, unwanted industry usage, faulty management, deforestation), that water will be poison due to excess use of fertilizers.
“A large portion of the nitrogen applied as fertilizer has remained unaccounted for the last several decades,”
“The fact that nitrogen is being stored in the soil means it can still be a source of elevated nitrate levels long after fertilizers are no longer being applied.”
This nitrogen is easily converted to nitrate, a highly soluble, inorganic compound that has become the most common drinking water pollutant in the U.S. (Imagine worse for India)
Will PMO India dare to stop fertilizer production altogether? Or since it is politically incorrect step, they will see the self-destruction?
Research
Fertilizer applied to fields today will pollute water for decades
https://uwaterloo.ca/stories/fertilizer-applied-fields-today-will-pollute-water-decades
Nitrogen fertilizer applied to farmers’ fields has been contaminating rivers and lakes and leaching into drinking water wells for more than 80 years. Now, a new University of Waterloo study shows that fertilizer applied today will continue to pollute water for decades because it’s building up in the soil.
The findings are significant because agricultural runoff that leaches into drinking water wells can cause newborns to develop something called “blue baby syndrome,” a potentially fatal condition that reduces oxygen-flow in the blood. There are also serious environmental concerns because excess nitrogen, flowing into rivers and oceans, creates “dead zones” for fish and other marine life.
Where does all the fertilizer go?
Since the 1970s, farmers and policymakers alike have worked hard to reduce the amount of fertilizer leaching from agricultural fields to groundwater and nearby lakes and streams. Yet in some rural areas, nitrate levels in groundwater have been found to be more than ten times the drinking water standard.
“Public drinking water sources are vulnerable to receiving elevated nitrate,” says Basu. “But an even greater danger is for people in rural areas living on private well sources.”
To quantify the true extent of the nitrogen problem, numerous researchers have attempted to account for all of the nitrogen inputs to and outputs from watersheds around the world. These so-called mass balance studies, however, have consistently come up short. Although we know that nitrate levels have been increasing in our waterways, the fate of much of the nitrogen that is applied to the land as fertilizer has remained a mystery.
