Commentary on “A possible trade-off between clean air and clean water” by Smith et al. (2017)

Excerpt

Authors of the recent feature article by Smith et al., which was published in the A Section of the July/August 2017 issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (A Section articles are not peer-reviewed while articles in the Research Section of the journal are peer-reviewed), have conducted water quality research in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) and demonstrated multiple potential causes of increased soluble phosphorous (SP) loading, including agricultural practice changes such as increased no-till, tile drainage, surface application of fall fertilizer, and weather. In their article, “A possible trade-off between clean air and clean water,” these authors propose an additional cause: the connection between the success of the Clean Air Act in improving air quality in the United States and increases in SP loading that have contributed to harmful algal blooms in the WLEB. Although we agree that scientists must always be vigilant for pernicious consequences of well-meaning actions, we believe that there are flaws in the study design and data interpretation that undermine the conclusion of article. Specifically, what we see as flaws in the interpretation of the data presented in table 1 and figures 2 and 3 are described below. Furthermore, the authors do…