WaterNews, September 29, 2022: Remedies for Harmful Algal Blooms Are Available in Law and Practice

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2022.09.29
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Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Circle of Blue spent five months investigating the causes, revealed solutions, and prepared a six-part project, "Danger Looms Where Toxic Algae Blooms,” a trail-blazing report on harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes region.
The project found that ending the scourge of harmful blooms is eminently achievable. It requires much greater accountability by the farm sector to significantly reduce the amount of phosphorus that drains into water.

Read the Series

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Speaking of Water - Keith Schneider on Harmful Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes

Brett Walton sits down with chef correspondent Keith Schneider to discuss key findings from "Danger Looms Where Toxic Algae Blooms,” Circle of Blue’s trail-blazing report on causes, impediments, and cures for harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes region.

Listen on Sound Cloud

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Lake Erie’s Failed Algae Strategy Hurts Poor Communities the Most

Every year, Lake Erie’s western basin turns a murky shade of green from toxic, nutrient-stoked harmful algae blooms. The expansion of industrial-scale farming in the basin, plus rainstorms made worse by climate change, have caused the blooms to surge in recent years.
“There’s still no mandate that says, ‘farmers have to fix this or there will be penalties.’ But there’s penalties to residents. And there’s penalties to utility payers,” said Alicia Smith, a community organizer in Junction, Ohio. “How can we trust people who are making deals with farmers, without also making mandates to protect us?”
Every bloom event slices tens of millions of dollars off of the local economy and property values. It exacts a psychological toll on residents living next to polluted waterways. And it’s making already-disadvantaged communities question just how much they can trust their elected officials.

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Powerful Industry’s Torrent of Manure Overwhelms State Regulators

To a large extent the harmful algal blooms that foul Michigan’s waters and turn western Lake Erie into a toxic inland sea are the result of mismatches.
The politically influential commercial farm community – a tiny minority of citizens – is primarily responsible for contaminating waters that millions depend on for drinking and recreation.
Too much commercial fertilizer and liquid animal manure is being spread on too few acres, often at the wrong time of year. Phosphorus not absorbed in the soil or by crops dissolves into the soluble reactive form that cyanobacteria crave to produce toxic algal blooms.
The state’s largest livestock and poultry producers are treated as a special class of polluters. They are allowed by law and timid regulatory inertia to annually spread 400 millions of tons of solid manure, and 4 billion gallons of raw, untreated liquid animal feces and urine – 5,000 to 7,000 gallons per acre – on 600,000 acres across Michigan.
Despite ample evidence of dangerous algal blooms erupting on more lakes, prompting health authorities to issue regular alarms and forcing homeowners and businesses to pay for rising drinking water purification costs, public tolerance for the blooms has insulated Michigan’s elected leaders and agency officials from establishing more vigorous and effective safeguards.
Here, though, is the biggest mismatch of all: Harmful algal blooms occur persistently in a state with sturdy and clear legal directives to lawmakers and regulators to secure Michigan’s waters.

Photo © J. Carl Ganter / Circle of Blue

Remedies for Harmful Algal Blooms Are Available in Law and Practice

There is no mystery to solving harmful algal blooms. It is essential to stop phosphorus from reaching streams, rivers, and lakes, especially the dissolved phosphorus craved by cyanobacteria, the microorganisms that generate harmful blooms.

The most successful strategies for solving harmful algal blooms depart from agricultural orthodoxy advanced by agricultural universities, and the federal and state agriculture departments, which encourage farmers to apply more phosphorus on cropland than is needed to produce ample harvests.

Persistently high concentrations of dissolved reactive phosphorus in streams and rivers are clear evidence that farmers are applying too much phosphorus, and livestock producers are spreading too much liquid manure.

Buffer strips, no-till cultivation, cover crops, two-stage ditches - are not impeding dissolved phosphorus discharges from entering watersheds.

The tools and technology for stopping harmful algal blooms are well understood and applied with differing levels of authority, commitment, and effectiveness around the world, but not across the United States.

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