Dont Drink The Waterin Lake Erie

Its the stuff dystopian sci-fi is made of: A city on the edge of the largest fresh water reserve on the planet suddenly has no drinkable water. At 1:21 am Saturday morning, the City of Toledo put out an alert: dont drink or bathe in water from the city water supply. About 500,000 residents of the region were affected. Including me.

Lake Erie has a long, troubled history. A common refrain in 1960 was Lake Erie is Dead. The lake and its tributaries have been polluted enough to catch on fire multiple times; the 1969 Cuyohoga fire is just the most famous one. Lake Erie is even mentioned in Dr. Seuss 1971 book The Lorax.

Lake Eries mess helped inspire the formation of the EPA in 1970, and the Clean Water Act of 1972. Things got better; Lake Erie became a hub for fishing and recreation, and is considered the Walleye Capitol of the World. To be able to consume fish from the lake at all, much less swim in the water, is a major achievement in just a few decades.

How did Lake Erie go from polluted, flaming disaster to environmental success storyand then back again to environmental disaster, in just 45 years? And why is it always Lake Erie that has issues? The answers to that question are not hard to find.

Lake Erie is different from the other Great Lakes because its so shallow. The western end of the lake (where Toledo is) has an average depth of only 24 feet. The water warms quickly, and its a great place to live if youre a blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). Say, toxin-producing Microcystis. Microcystis has the ability to control its buoyancy; it can sink or rise to the top of the water at will to chase the sunlight.

When you look at the satellite photo below of the cyanobacterialbloom, its a pretty close overlay for the warm western shallow section of the lake. And exactly where the water intake for the Toledo Water Treatment plant is (red marker on map). The satellite image here is fromJuly 31st, 2014; the problem with toxic algae was not a surprise overnight development.

Both scientists and politicians know there is a problem with algae at this end of the lake nearly every year; look at this satellite photo from 2013. Or 2012. But its not just bad luck and geology; there is a third piece in the Lake Erie Algal Bloom equation.

Toledo is located on the mouth of the Maumee River. It was a strategic area in the 1812 War; and again in the Toledo War of 1835.

The Maumee River was key to Toledos early economic success; its also the cause of algal bloom problems now. Maumee is the largest watershed in the Great Lakes system. It runs right through the Breadbasket of the Midwest, an intensively farmed area. Satellite views show thousands upon thousands of little boxes of green; the highly productive farms and fields of Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

The Maumee watershed is such productive farmland because it was once a swamp; the Great Black Swamp. Drainage tiles allowed removal of water from the surface of the soil, and made wonderfully rich swampland available for farming. Drainage tiles also collect up runoff and deliver it very efficiently to streams and rivers.

Originally posted here:
Dont Drink The Waterin Lake Erie