Water, Water Everywhere, Nor Any Drop to Drink

Blue green algae toxins have brought back the curse of the ancient Mariner.
Water everywhere but none to drink. The problem has existed for many years but for some reason no has become acute. Over 40 years ago there was a documentary about the Great Lakes and the narrator canoes from Lake Superior to Lake Ontario. As I remember the context of the film, past history of the waterway was compared to current conditions. When the canoeist gets to Lake Erie he dips his paddle into semi-pristine water and lifts it up to drink from the run off. Quite a trick to pull off but when you're thirsty it is refreshing. As the paddle hits the apex of the lift the water turns from 17th century water to the sludge that existed in the 1960's, green and chunky. Along with DDT and mercury problems many considered Lake Erie dead.

 

An effort was started to clean up the Great Lakes and things turned around quickly. However there's always been an algae bloom in Lake Erie and this causes a dead zone that can cause major fish die offs. The lake is shallow in terms of the rest of the Great Lakes and accepts many chemicals from the Detroit River and the Maumee. This feeds the algae and along with the warm temperatures of the shallow water their population takes off.


 







The problem is very complex with contributions coming from fertilizers and the waste of animals, including humans. Nowhere else on the Great Lakes does this problem happen even though almost every lake has the same types and amounts of contributors. Thankfully now the Feds are chipping in. $12 million is set aside to find out where the worst contributor exist. From manure to excrement to farm runoff, how much and where from. Hopefully we'll get some answers that solve this big problem and get the albatross off our necks.