A river to a major city is now so polluted that almost half a million people residents have been told not to drink their tap water. Sounds like China, right? Think Toledo, Ohio. While we have been following the rolling environmental disasters in China, we often forget about our own failure to protect the basic health of our citizens. Toledo is such an example. While newspapers have detailed how algae blooms are releasing toxins, they largely fail to state the likely reason or downplay it: phosphorous and nitrogen from farm fertilizer runoff.
Way back in the late 1970s, I worked at the Smithsonian Center for Environmental Research in Maryland where scientists were doing some of the early work on how such runoff was killing the Chesapeake Bay. It was and remains a touchy subject in Washington because of the agribusiness lobby.
In Toledo, over 400,000 people have been told to avoid swallowing the water. They were also told not to try to boil the water because that would increase the concentration of the microcystin toxin. The City of Toledo issued a warning that water “should not be consumed until an all clear is issued.”
Restaurants were asked not to use city water to even wash dishes.
The source of the water is Lake Erie, where phosphorous and nitrogen runoff has continued to pollute the waters.
Source: Inquirer
All Presidental elections run through Ohio. Someone needs a plan.
Rick Perry – the only thing I recall is that he froze during a debate. He was asked if he wanted to get rid of the EPA, and he answered, no, but it needs to be rebuilt.
Is that where you get that conservatives, or the GOP, want to get rid of the EPA? Seriously?
Help! Lost a post!
Nick – how devastating for a young man to die like that. Was it the algae, or one of the amoebas that thrive in warm, stagnant water? His poor family.
On the one hand, marine algae contribute something like 70% of the world’s oxygen supply. On the other, algae blooms smother aquatic life and can release toxins.
What’s the source of Madison’s blooms – agricultural runoff or are they naturally occurring?
This is another reason why I support quality organic agriculture, rather than the repeated application of water soluble chemical fertilizers, with only a few quick release nutrients in mega doses.
Rick Perry ring a bell?
One thing I would like done to address the drought is the de-criminalization of saving rain water in barrels and cisterns. Did you know it is against the law in some areas for homeowners to save the rainwater that pours off their roof?
I enjoyed this post, especially the part about dumping a ton of water into the ocean in the hopes that salmon would one day swim upstream to spawning grounds they haven’t used in generations, during a drought. Or there is this gem, “After last summer’s forest fires wiped out a billion board feet of timber, we are still arguing over whether loggers will be allowed to salvage such precious lumber, or instead should let it rot to enhance beetle and woodpecker populations.”
There is responsible stewardship, and then there is a complete lack of foresight and common sense.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/370425/californias-two-droughts-victor-davis-hanson
How interesting how any criticism of the EPA gets labelled wanting to get rid of it. People become afraid to object to over-reach or abuse of power, because they don’t want to become labelled as “wanting to get rid of the EPA.”
For example, the EPA recently removed the term “navigable” from the requirement for a waterway to fall under the EPA and require federal permits. Now, any ditch, depression, or grade in the land that seasonally fills with water after heavy rains, draining to any waterway, now requires a federal permit. So unless you live on completely flat land, you would need a federal permit to farm. There are other ways to address runoff from farms and ranches.
But if you object to the removal of the word “navigable” you “want to get rid of the EPA.”
Or, in CA, we are in a major drought, and yet we dump billions of gallons of water into the ocean to save the smelt, causing 40% unemployment in some communities and drying up farmland. We should be bright enough to come up with another solution.
We’re in a drought, and rationing is on the horizon. Liberals: let’s dump billions of gallons into the ocean, equivalent to the annual needs of a city of 500,000 people. 🙂
http://www.ohioenvironmentallawblog.com/tags/army-corps-of-engineers/
http://naturalresources.house.gov/issues/issue/?IssueID=5921
http://www.naturalnews.com/046314_Toledo_water_crisis_algal_bloom.html
Another example of how our government doesn’t get the job done. Keep electing those in favor of big government and you’ll keep getting the same result: incompetence. Instead of protecting us, they are protecting ‘endangered species.’ Apparently we are not included in that category.
EPA. Who wants to get rid of it? How much worse would it be without them?
The more we go on about this horrible event, the more the government will ratchet up Ukraine. Go ahead and drink the water–but be sure to check under your bed.
Americans along the Gulf of Mexico are suffering a similar fate.
tolbuck
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The algae blooms have been worse in other years than this year, so that doesn’t entirely explain why the toxins showed up in the water supply over the weekend.
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Depends on how you define “worse” doesn’t it?
Don’t try drinking the water at home folks.
WordMess is eating comments with truth in them.
Natch.
Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico are both downstream from Oil-Qaeda produced fertilizers and other pollutants (The Gulf of Mexico Is Still Dying: Pathogenic Micro-organisms Proliferate Due To Polluted And Poisoned ‘Bioterrain’).
Dredd, I retrieved your comment at 9:07.
Toledo is like Gaza? Really?
The algae blooms have been worse in other years than this year, so that doesn’t entirely explain why the toxins showed up in the water supply over the weekend. I suspect when all is said and done we will find out someone in the Toledo Water Department dropped the ball here. This wouldn’t be a surprise as the Water Department is a frequent dumping ground for the city’s worst managers.
Algae blooms are a huge problem on the otherwise beautiful Madison lakes. You can almost walk across them this time of year. My son was a defenseman in soccer and had a friend who was the goalie. This kid was a love of life young man. He was playing golf between the summer of his Jr./Sr. year in high school. Imitating some golf pros, he jumped into a pond after making a birdie on the last hole. The pond had this deadly algae. He was dead the next day. It was the first lesson on the randomness of life for my son, and many other kids in that school.
Next time Obama goes Golfing, ask a question. Does Fertilizer/Pesticide Use on a Golf Course Put Water Resources in Peril?
What has happened? Why are golf courses now considered by some to be analogous to toxic waste dumps? Of course, the answer to these questions is complex,
and probably has more to do with sociological and psychological issues than it does with answers that can be provided by turfgrass scientists and their research.
In the United States, golf courses cover more than 1.7 million acres and soak up nearly 4 billion gallons of water daily. They also use pesticides and fertilizers that contribute to water pollution.
Impeach Obama! Now! Full disclosure: I am a lifelong progressive Democrat. Obama and his minions will be sipping purified H2O in Martha’s Vineyard, while we proles stand in line for our rations from our Caesar, Kaiser, Czar, etc.,etc.,ad nauseum. There will be blood. Over andout. P.S. Toledo/Detroit = Gaza.