Our daily activities have a profound impact on water chemistry. One of the most pervasive chemicals in the products that we regularly use is phosphorus. It’s in fertilizer and cleaning agents. But excess phosphorus in aquatic ecosystems is a serious pollutant. In this activity, students estimate the amount of phosphorus in water discharged from a dishwasher and relate that to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended limits on phosphorus in lakes and streams.

What is eutrophication? How might the food on my plate be connected to a Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico? Fertilizers used on crops and manure from livestock can both runoff into waterways where the nitrogen and phosphorus they contain contribute to algal blooms, eutrophication and dead zones.

Dive into the Chesapeake Bay with Philippe Cousteau Jr. and scientists from the Oyster Recovery Partnership, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to explore a phenomenon that threatens our global oceans: dead zones.