how do lawn fertilizers applied at home end up as pollutants in nearby lake?

Answer 1

Water run off from rain goes to nearby lakes and streams.

Answer 2

Lawn fertilizers contain lots of nitrogen, and salts.Most people who fertilize lawns ues high nitrogen fertilizers becaise it is easily avaliable to the grass and it greens it up fast. However many of these fertilizers are chemical ( synthetic ) in nature and has a detemental effect on water and aquatic life , and even the ground water. Nitrogen is easily leached in the ground water.Over applying fertilizer is another mode of action for synthetic fertilizers to infiltrate inot the lakes and groundwater. If you impove the soil and lawn area by way of aerification, fertilizing and watering will become more effective because water and fertilizer will penetrating into the soil where the grass roots are instead of running off into other places where it is not needed. Natural fertilizers on the other hand have much less of an effect on the above accounts but you still need to airify the lawn area.

Answer 3

Excess fertilizers are water soluble and seep into the water table through runoff or by moving into the groundwater. When the fertilizer reaches lakes or streams it can cause a growth of algae because of the nutrient content of the contaminated water. This in turn causes the algae to use all of the oxygen in the water causing hypoxia or "dead zones" common in the gulf of Mexico from the runoff for the Mississippi river.

Answer 4

Much of the rain moves through streams and rivers toward the lake as run-off, carrying some of the fertilizer with it, since the chemicals don't all get into the ground.