GUEST COLUMN
LAKE ERIE ALGAL BLOOMS– It’s a Complicated Issue By: Alan Hahn In the summer of 2014, nearly a half million people in northeastern Ohio and southeastern Michigan were unable to use their tap water for consumption or bathing. Naturally-occurring, blue-green algae had grown and formed a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) in Lake Erie. What caused this HAB and how to avoid future incidents has been the subject of considerable conversation. As expected, some of the attention has been directed toward agriculture in the Lake Erie watershed. Who is to blame and what the possible solutions might be are complicated. Part of the problem of this particular HAB is attributed to northerly winds that pushed the bloom to Toledo’s water intake. According to NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab, the 2014 bloom is neither larger nor more intense than any other recent year; it has
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PARTNERS Fall 2014
simply had a more direct human impact because of its location in Maumee Bay. Reducing the likelihood of future algal blooms from becoming HABs requires that we better understand the nutrients that are feeding these blooms. A recent report in Great Lakes Now suggests the bad actor is dissolved phosphorus. According to Dr. Jeffrey Reutter, Director of Ohio State University’s Sea Grant Program, “…the one (source) that contributes the most or puts in the largest portion of the (dissolved phosphorus) load is agricultural runoff…so we