Wednesday, September 20, 2017
1:00 PM
FREP Membership Meeting
Nutrient Reduction Strategies, Sierra Club
              Batavia City Council Chambers
              100 S. Island Avenue

Nutrient pollution is a major threat to water quality. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus carried in runoff from city streets and farm fields or flowing out of wastewater treatment plants can fuel algae blooms that decrease oxygen needed by aquatic plants and animals. In the Gulf of Mexico, nutrients washed down by the Mississippi River have created a "dead zone" that stretches for thousands of square miles. At home, nutrient pollution can also lower property values, hinder recreation, and degrade water quality.

In 2015, Illinois adopted its Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy aimed at addressing the problems excessive nutrients pose in Illinois waters and downstream to the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. That same year, the Fox River Study Group completed its Fox River Implementation Plan designed to improve oxygen levels and reduce nuisance algae in the Fox River.

On August 29, Illinois released its first biennial report on progress on the strategy.