[Note: The following is not in reference to the BP Gulf Oil Spill but rather to a longer term problem of hypoxia near the exit of the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico.]

Hypoxia is often reported in the Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone” and linked by several organizations to increased corn production required for biofuels demand. The logic posits that agricultural runoff? into the Mississippi from the Midwest is the source of the "Gulf Dead Zone" problem.

The following graphics illustrate the size of the Gulf of Mexico "Dead Zone" as measured by NOAA (U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)²:



























Note the Gulf "Dead Zone" covered 8,000 square miles in 2002 and only 3,000 square miles in 2009. In the U.S., ethanol production in 2002 was approximately 2 billion gallons per year¹ and is currently operating at a rate above 12 billion gallons per year.

In summary, ethanol production in the U.S. is up over 600% and the size of the "Dead Zone" has decreased by more than half in the time period from 2002 to 2009. Therefore, increased corn acreage for ethanol production appears to have little direct correlation to the Gulf "Dead Zone."



References:

¹ http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/analysispaper/biomass.html

² http://www.ncddc.noaa.gov/website/Hypoxia/viewer.htm