Until we eliminate toxic algae, warnings shouldn’t be ignored

Folks really ought not to swim in potentially toxic algae that could make them sick. Seems like that might go without saying, but Buckeye Lake’s Crystal Beach and Fairfield Beach recently had people wading and swimming in the stuff despite signs warning of unsafe toxin levels.

Perhaps it’s understandable because the algae has become such an annual fixture in Ohio that it seems less scary. And perhaps Buckeye Lake folks are especially unwilling to be ordered out of the water, given what they’ve endured since early 2015, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers declared that the 4.1-mile earthen dam that contains the lake could fail any minute, threatening thousands of lives.

The lake was drained to about 3 feet immediately and wasn’t restored to full depth until this summer, following completion of a new dam at the end of last year.

But people around Grand Lake St. Mary’s, perhaps the state’s most algaeplagued water body, could tell Buckeye Lake swimmers something about cyanobacteria, the toxin

that often grows in the blue-green algae that is fed by agricultural fertilizer and other nutrients that wash off of farmland into Ohio streams and lakes.

In July 2010, state health officials confirmed that seven people were sickened by the algae at Grand Lake St. Mary’s. Three dogs washed up dead on the beach that summer, presumed to have been poisoned by cyanobacteria. Another dog that had been exposed died later after having seizures and blood clots.

The ultimate solution to Ohio’s annual algae plague is a change in farming practices. Too much phosphorus-rich fertilizer and manure, applied under the wrong conditions, allow too much phosphorus to run off into streams and ultimately to lakes.

But pushback from the powerful agricultural lobby has stymied efforts to establish fertilizer rules or even require farmers to create plans for careful application.

Until that changes and the annual phosphorus onslaught slows, people should heed the warnings when levels get too high and find some other way to cool off and have fun.