Stay Informed
United States -- Gulf
The Gulf of Mexico watershed is nearly two million square miles in area, draining parts of 31 states between the Rockies and the Appalachian Mountains. The Gulf region of Waterkeeper Alliance stretches east from the Rocky Mountains to the Appalachian Mountains and south from the headwaters of the Mississippi River to the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. The Gulf region encompasses a diverse collection of ecosystems, including mangrove swamps, estuaries, bays and lagoons, salt and freshwater marshes, dense brushlands, coastal prairies, and upland forests. These ecosystems serve as a major source of food, minerals and energy for wildlife and humans alike.
Click here to see a list of Waterkeeper Organizations in the Gulf region.
Main Threats:
The threats to the Gulf region are as diverse as its ecosystems. Nutrient pollution from agriculture and development has caused a dead zone—where oxygen levels are too low to support aquatic life—the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico. Widespread coastal and inland development destroys wetlands and other critical habitat, and stormwater pollution chokes tributaries and the Gulf with sediment and toxic runoff. In the past 10 years, the Gulf has lost the largest percentage of coastal wetlands in the nation. Mountaintop removal, longwall and other coal mining activities destroy water resources, while coal-fired power plants poison the food chain with mercury and other toxins. The presence of oil and gas deposits offshore and several major ports make the Gulf coast the heart of the U.S. petrochemical industry.