The low levels of oxygen in the water make it difficult for fish, oysters and other marine creatures to survive as well as important habitats such as sea grass beds. The cause is attributed mostly to fertilizers in the form of farm run-offs and sewage plants, but most often the utility consumers end up bearing the cost of clean up in the form of higher water usage charges.

In the US, particularly in areas with sensitive water bodies like the Chesapeake Bay, states have imposed additional duty for water usage dubbed the “flush tax”. Utility bills are expected to increase continually until 2014 to meet the demand for plant upgrades. This is due in part the US EPA mandate to reduce pollutant load enter such managed watersheds.

Does it mean the utility business will flourish? Usually not, the technology cost of clean up could run in millions of dollars. As an example, a plant that never required to meet Nitrogen pollutant limits would now need to spend millions to bring the levels down to below 3 mg/L (Parts Per Million) by the year 2010. So will the technology providers benefit from this crisis, probably a little, but cutting edge technology comes at a cost, and research consumes the majority of the profits.

So who is making the money? Clearly the only winners are the farmers, they pollute while benefiting from it, yet they never pay for the clean up. Why you may ask, faming is not a profitable business for one, with more than 50 percent of the world population involved in farming, the net GDP from farming is less than 4 percent, so there is no point going after those who can never pay, so the farming community weasels out, resulting in a bigger bill for you am I.