Nitrogen
Nitrogen in the entire Mississippi River watershed is a major problem facing the U. ... The nitrogen that goes into the river is causing a huge “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico where no fish can live. If the nitrogen runoff doesn’t go down, this “dead zone” will just get bigger and bigger. We have three plans to help reduce nitrogen use in the Chippewa River watershed which dumps into the Mississippi. ... Then irrigate the fields and collect the runoff, and test nitrogen levels. ... We think the field with half corn and half grass should have less nitrogen in the runoff, because there is more vegetation on the land, and the grass would help infiltrate the runoff from the corn.