River to the sea

[neverspent]

Our river is down to normal levels, finally. The flooding now is up north, where their spring storms occur later and they also have winter snow melt to contend with.



When I went down to look at the fishing dock and the jetty a few days ago, I was able to stand in a spot where my head would have been several feet under water during the flood stage. The wooden dock was covered with water, and only a couple of feet of the metal railing and steps above it were visible. It's amazing, the difference in just a few weeks.

Still, there's an incredible amount of fresh water flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, and I heard a radio program recently about the resulting expected increase in the "dead zone" because of it. This is an area of water in the Gulf that has such a low oxygen content that nothing can live there. (It's "hypoxic.") As I understand it, one of the main problems is that the river water has an especially high nitrogen and phosphorus content due mostly to agricultural and landscaping fertilizers. The nitrogen causes increased algae growth in the Gulf, which depletes the oxygen. You know, with all the focus on the effects of flooding along the rivers, I never thought of how it would affect the final outlet.


Meanwhile, we're back to drought up here. The sun is relentless. It has rained once in the past month, and it kind of feels like it will be this way forever.