Lake Erie explodes in algae

Science & Technology Science & Nature
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Gross!

Toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie fouled the water that hundreds of thousands of people rely on for drinking, cooking and bathing last week, forcing hundreds of thousands of people in Ohio to rely on bottled water.
The slimy green problem is back with a vengeance. Blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria, that choke up huge portions of the lake have reemerged as an annual summertime scourge after nearly disappearing for more than a decade.

The algae problem was thought to have been successfully eliminated in the 1980s.

So what happened?

Scientists think the root causes of today's algae problem are not the  same as what caused algae blooms in decades past, even if the size and  severity of the blooms is similar, Benoy said.

Ultimately, algae blooms are caused by excess phosphorus in the water that provides the algae with the fertilizer it needs to grow exponentially, given enough sun and warm enough water temperatures. But the source of that phosphorus can vary.

From the 1960s to the 1980s, Benoy said, the main source of phosphorus was sewage plants. The algae problem was considered so serious that communities on the shores of the lake poured billions of dollars into sewage infrastructure upgrades and implemented laws banning phosphorus in laundry detergents.

This time, the main problems are thought to be ones that governments have much less direct control over. To some extent, they include the application of fertilizers to lawns and golf courses, growing expanses of pavement in urban areas that cause water to drain more quickly into waterways without being filtered by vegetation, and invasive zebra mussels that release extra nutrients into the water as they feed. But those aren’t thought to be the biggest cause.

“We think farming is the major culprit behind the current levels of phosphorus that’s in runoff and the phosphorus loads that are getting dumped into the western basin of Lake Erie,” Benoy told CBC News.

Rest of article: Lake Erie’s algae explosion blamed on farmers - Technology & Science - CBC News

The Great Lakes are one of the biggest sources of fresh water in the world, so I don’t know why stuff still gets dumped in them. IMO farming has to get intense because more farm land is being turned into suburbs, so they have to use more chemicals to produce the same amount of food they used to before. It’s a vicious cycle. What do you guys think?

whats your FDD?
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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

The avoidable ones appear to be
1) lawn fertilizers
2) golf courses.

Our dishwasher detergent phosphate free.

These are problems that can be addressed with planning and proper allocation of resources. But with one side he'll bent on cutting spending at all costs, the cost is there for everyone to see.

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How much can a lawn use fertilizer, compared to a huge farm spread over acres? The problem's long term solution isn't restricting phosphate in fertilizers for domestic, urban use. I think it is larger than that. IMO sale of farmland needs to be stopped, and farmers need to be subsidized and supported. Farming is such an unthankable, unprofitable job, but without farming we won't get food.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

Great topic by the way. Very informative.

Forgot to add - our laundry detergent and lawn fertilizers (organjc) are also phosphate free.Each of us as individuals shoukd do our part. I don't have the numbers. But if u add up phosphate from individual use I suspect it would be substantial.

Most farm aid goes to big boys. Like monsanto. It is not for lack of subsiies. It's about where they end up.
.Re more phosphate per unit of food produced - I am not sure I have seen that. You r probably right. But I haven't seen it.

IMO it is unconscionable to maintain lawns where they don't grow naturally. Golf courses r huge. And a big drag on resources.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

I'm against golf period. Such a useless game :o It probably works better in the highlands of Scotland where it originated, but not so fun elsewhere in the world.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

Cut and pasted from a pdf file from good search. You r correct. Most P comes from farming. In 70 pct farmlands there is excess phosphate. So efficiency called for. Meat also is mor phosphate intensive apparently. Synthetic phosphate in fertilizers 9 the problem apparently. Phosphorus from naturally occurring phosphate rock is good. The P cycle needs to be in balance

"Solutions for a broken phosphorus cycle
Ensuring phosphorus remains available for food production by future generations and preventing pollution in water systems is possible by working towards closing the broken phosphorus cycle. This requires strong actions in two main areas: reducing phosphorus losses, especially from agricultural lands; and increasing phosphorus recovery and reuse to agricultural lands from all sources, including livestock wastes, food waste and human excreta. Closing the broken phosphorus cycle should follow two main drivers:
• Stop or minimise losses, by increasing efficiency in the use of phosphorus, mostly in arable land and the food chain. Additionally, sustainable phosphorus use will benefit from shifting to plant-rich diets that are more efficient users of phosphorus (and other resources) than meat-rich diets, and from minimising food waste.
• Maximise recovery and reuse of phosphorus, mostly of animal and human excreta, and thus minimise the need for mined phosphorus.
Arable Land: In arable land, reducing phosphorus losses will require actions to stop overuse of synthetic fertilisers, by moving away from mineral phosphorus and optimising land use. It will also require measures to avoid erosion by improving soil management and improve soil quality.
Farmers should aim at maintaining phosphorus levels in the soil that ensure economically optimal yields while diminishing risk of phosphorus losses to surface water. For that aim, policies and capacity building that enables farmers to decide in critical values of phosphorus soil nutrition are needed. Supporting farmers in any interventions to reduce phosphorus overuse is a first necessary step.
Avoiding the overuse of phosphorus in the 70% of the world’s agriculture land with phosphorus surpluses will save millions of tonnes of phosphorus that will not need to be mined and applied. This will obviously benefit the farmer’s finances, the sustainability of phosphorus reserves and the amount of clean water bodies worldwide.
In livestock systems: Reducing phosphorus losses will require maximising use of phosphorus in manure for soil fertility in croplands and pastures, and adjusting livestock diets. This will simultaneously work for recovering the phosphorus (and other nutrients) being lost when they"

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You severely underestimate the impact of fertilisers that have run off into the stormwater systems.

Fertilisers and agriculture run off is one of the largest non point source water pollutants. The issue is really as simple as it seems; water from stormwater drainage systems needs to be purified enough so that upon entering it is not considered to be a pollutant.

Companies that prefabricate stormwater systems have designed products that claim to have the ability to remove such chemical impurities. I have personally worked very closely with the installation of these gross pollutant trap (gpt) systems in various stormwater networks.

The main problem with implementing such gpt units for farm and agriculture use is the lack of developed subsurface infrastructure. These systems are still relatively new and mostly implemented during major upgrades or development of new stormwater networks.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

I understood some of what u say. Questions
1).what is a prefabricated storm water system
2) how do they trap pollutants
3) what is subsurface infrastructure. How does it relate to storm water drainage system. In other words isn't the latter simply a subsurface infrastructure?

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

I used to run 7miles along presque Isle ... dead fish would literally come up to you

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A prefabricated water system (in context) describes any component of a stormwater network, such as pits, pipes, headwalls, culverts, etc, that is made off site and simply put into the ground, over alternative methods.

Filters are mainly used to trap pollutants. They are usually placed at the end of a line, just before water is let out into a creek.

Subsurface infrastructure describes any tangible components of an underground network of pipes and chambers (pits) to be able to effectively reroute stormwater.

Hope that helped clarify a few things.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

Thanks! Very clear.

It would seem to be this should be made mandatory through regulations.

Filters would remove particulates. For phosphate removal I would imagine some sort of chemical reaction would be needed to precipitate it out. And then the solids treated to regenerate the phosphate.

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

@ pforrm dead fish walking

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Re: Lake Erie explodes in algae

You are hanging around Mr. Hunt too much!