Any folks affected by algae bloom in water ?

[Mr Nice]

Any folks affected by algae bloom in water ?


http://m.toledoblade.com/local/2014/08/03/Water-crisis-grips-area.html

http://m.toledoblade.com/gallery/Water-crisis-continues#goback

 

[earlyre]

Not Personally, but people who have relatives up there were clearing out store shelves down here of bottled water yesterday.

(we are about 90 min south of Toledo Proper, an hour south of the lower end of the affected zone.)

 

[GreeCguy]

I found this in the comment section - interesting -

Algal growth is mainly blamed on the runoffs from cities and farms, but what is the best kept secrete is that EPA and States never implemented the CWA, because of a faulty applied essential water pollution test. By using the 5-day reading of the BOD test, in stead of its full 30-day reading, EPA, when it set sewage treatment standards 40 years ago, not only ignored 60% of the BOD pollution, but also all the nitrogenous (urine and protein) waste. This waste or as it now called a nutrient, is a fertilizer for algae and for each pound will grow 20 pound of algae. Admitting to this mistake apparently is too embarrassing that any attempt to correct this mistake in the past 30 years failed. The only sad good that may come from what is happening in Toledo, is that finally after 40 years EPA and States are forced to implement the CWA as intended and stop using our open waters as urinals.
Peter Maier

And, an interesting link about using human urine as fertilizer.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Human-Urine-As-A-Liquid-Fertilizer&id=392596

I know that "pure pee" will burn the plants if used straight, but watered down, it makes an excellent fertilizer.

 

[Mr Nice]

Imagine if it got as bad as China's algae problem during the Olympics.

 

[hattaresguy]

Sounds like Toledo has horrible runoff control.

Around here the only ponds that turn green are usually on golf courses but generally we have pretty good runoff and fertilizer control.

Drinking water is unthinkable, the water companies in CT own most of the watershed areas and keep it clean. Water is never a problem here.

 

[artificialist]

Does that area use separate sanitary sewers and storm sewers? I have heard that when the sewers aren't separate, too much water runs off the streets, then the combined flow exceeds the capacity of the sewage treatment system. There are sometimes storage tanks that hold the overflow until the sewage treatment system can treat everything, but even the storage tanks can overflow.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: artificialist
Does that area use separate sanitary sewers and storm sewers? I have heard that when the sewers aren't separate, too much water runs off the streets, then the combined flow exceeds the capacity of the sewage treatment system. There are sometimes storage tanks that hold the overflow until the sewage treatment system can treat everything, but even the storage tanks can overflow.


Some areas still used combined systems, or have sanitary systems that get inundated with storm water, forcing waste water facilities to release the storm/solid waste water combo right back into water ways.

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted By: hattaresguy
Sounds like Toledo has horrible runoff control.

Around here the only ponds that turn green are usually on golf courses but generally we have pretty good runoff and fertilizer control.

Drinking water is unthinkable, the water companies in CT own most of the watershed areas and keep it clean. Water is never a problem here.


it's Not just Toledo. Almost all of the Rivers in NW OH, and NE IN, not to Mention a Portion of S MI, drain into Lake Erie via the Maumee River

The Lighter area in that Map is the Maumee watershed, 2/3 of which is farmland.

From the Maumee River Wikipedia page (linked above)

"The Maumee watershed is Ohio’s breadbasket, two-thirds farmland, mostly corn and soybeans. By 2012, agricultural practices along the Maumee River were responsible for phosphate levels in Lake Erie that cause yearly, deadly algae blooms in the lake, which in turn greatly threaten the lake's ecosystem. The Maumee supplies only about 5 percent of Erie’s water, but half its phosphorus. And while algae struggle to digest ordinary phosphorus — only about 30 percent gets taken up — fertilizer phosphorus is designed for plants to use instantly."

 

[Mamala Bay]

GMO Crops? Sterile soil from heavy GMO herbicide/pesticide application.

Synthetic fertilizer leaches in sterile soil...doesn't hold so more fertilizer is needed.

Highly doubt from sewer stuff...coming from the agriculture.

 

[paulo57509]

I don't know if it's algae bloom but the tap water around here tastes and smells like aquarium water.

 

[Blaze]

It takes a huge amount of fertilizer to grow corn/ethanol. You reap what you sow.

 

[MNgopher]

Anyone saying the Clean Water Act hasn't been implemented obviously doesn't work in any segment of the water industry. The language from the comments section posted by GreeCguy reeks of an ag sector shill trying to confuse the issue.

The reality is the Clean Water Act has covered more and more sectors of public and private industry and municipalities. The one glaring omission to the Clean Water Act is the agricultural sector, which remains exempt from virtually all regulations of the Clean Water act.

Much of what earlyr posted matches the reality of the heavily agricultural watersheds in this area as well.

 

[GrtArtiste]

The water restrictions were lifted this morning. The emergency is over....for now.

 

[DBMaster]

This is another one of those situations in which my R/O system shows its worth. If you had one you would have been able to continue to have drinking water without going out to buy it.

 

[Cutehumor]

Franklin, TN has water quality problems as well. they blamed it last summer on the drought and algae bloom. the water tasted bad. people here are reporting the water quality to EPA.

 

[DBMaster]

We have algae bloom here, too. Our man-made lakes are surrounded by agricultural and residential development. Because people generally think more is better residential land, acre-for-acre, often produces more chemical runoff than farmland. The local water utilities refer to the taste of the tap water in the summer as "earthy." It's a nice way of saying that it tastes like potting soil. They claim it is not harmful. The recent news about Toledo makes me wonder.

It's not a conspiracy. It's just dealing with what you have. Aside from air conditioning, it's man-made lakes that make life possible in the region in which I live. Once the true cost of making this area livable comes to light it may no longer be as attractive as it is now. We'll see.

 

[hattaresguy]

The problem is their are to many nitrates in stagnant water, throw in some heat and sun and you get an algae bloom.

The only way to fix this problem is to reduce fertilizer usage. I won't comment on agriculture because I don't know much about it, but in such areas they should ban fertilizers on residential and commercial lawns, or at least adopt ones that don't leach as badly. They should also ban none native grasses as well because rich green grass only naturally grows in wet areas, not semi arid. CA is moving in this direction to reduce water usage.

This pretty much comes down to lose regulations and poor water resource management. People make fun of New England and all our environmental regulations but they forget we have them for a reason. We already went threw this nonsense a few decades ago.