RED MEANS WARNING: The image illustrates algae and sediment concentrations.

  • RED MEANS WARNING: The image illustrates algae and sediment concentrations.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel today announced that he’d joined other states in a fight against environmental groups seeking stronger anti-pollution standards on nutrients discharged into the Mississippi River.

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McDaniel said in a news release (on jump) that the environmental groups want “unnecessary and unreasonable” regulation.

Tell that to those who are familiar with the dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. The larger ramifications, including flood control along the river, extend to loss of coastal marshlands that, in addition to nurturing aquatic life, serve as a damper on hurricane damage. But that’s Louisiana. In Arkansas, McDaniel’s concern for 2014 is keeping farmers happy.

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Here’s the other side of this battle in a public radio report, which included the illustration above. Red and orange indicated high concentration of algae and river sediment, contributors to dead zones were low oxygen snuffs out sea life.

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