Microscopic menace
LimnoTech, an environmental consulting firm.
“An entire day can go by and you only have an opportunity to look at two samples,” Verhamme said, referring to the former testing method. “That’s why buoys are so important because every 10 minutes they give you a proxy for intensity of the bloom.”
Applying chlorine, a chemical commonly used in water treatment, to water with large amounts of organic matter like algae can result in disinfection byproducts. The long-term health implications from consuming these substances are unclear. Research has linked some to an increased risk of certain cancers and miscarriage.
The new treatment is scheduled to go online August 2020 and should curb the amount of these incidental byproducts.
The adjustments that have been made and overhauls to come are unlikely to change things for Markie Miller, an activist for Toledoans for Safe Water, who has lived near Lake Erie her entire life. In the five years since the water ban, Miller, 30, said every summer is marked by caution and paranoia.
At the height of harmful algae blooms, many people will only drink bottled water. Drinking Toledo tap water has been compared to swallowing swimming pool water because of the pungent taste of residual chlorine. At local restaurants, complimentary glasses of water go untouched. Many of Miller’s friends don’t order coffee or other beverages that might require tap water as the base. And when using her Brita water filter, Miller sometimes will pour out an entire pitcher because she thinks the purified water still has a strange taste.
Even after amassing an encyclopedic knowledge of local water issues, Miller sometimes finds it hard to distinguish between a justifiable concern and a manifestation of her fears.
“The people at the water treatment plant are always ready to tell you that they are ready with an arsenal of chemicals, that we’re prepared for another 2014. But I’m like, is this just as bad as ingesting toxins? Is it worse? I don’t know. It does make you nervous,” Miller said. “I’ve done dishes to the point where my hands turn red, and I stop and think, ‘Is this all in my head? Am I freaking myself out because I know too much about this?’ After a while, it gets to you.”
But this mindset is ingrained in local culture. At the height of summer, when most coastal communities flock to the beach, the beaches in western Lake Erie are deserted.
Many coastal areas are marked by signs with ominous advice: “Avoid swallowing lake water.” In some instances, the state Department of Health ordered people not to even touch the water, given certain levels of toxins can cause rashes and burns.
“I know growing up here in this area every year, we would go up north to enjoy the beach in Lake Huron. It wasn’t until I reached adulthood that I realized how close we lived to Lake Erie or that it was our source of drinking water,” Miller said.
“When people say they’re going to the beach, your first response is ‘Well, where are you going?’”
The algae blooms have even become popularized in a green beer, “Alegae Bloom,” served in a can with comic book-like art depicting a green swamp creature emerging from the water.
This year, on the fifth anniversary of the water crisis, Miller and other activists went to Maumee Bay State Park. The weather was beautiful. It was sunny and bright. But the water was a radiant green, and there was nobody at the beach.
Other communities should take heed of what is occurring in Lake Erie, environmentalists say. These same cyanobacteria capable of creating toxins are found in ponds, rivers, lakes and oceans across the world — and with climate change, conditions are more conducive to their growth.
“In general, many of us have the view that these organisms can be world travelers,” said Greg Dick, a researcher at the University of Michigan who studies cyanobacteria. “They can travel across continents. There is some evidence they can be aerosolized in little droplets and clouds. They can get up in the jetstream.
“We have this saying when it comes to microbes: Everything is everywhere, and then the environment selects.”
The southern end of Lake Michigan is an unlikely home for sizable blooms, due in part to the reversing of the Chicago River, a historic feat that sends much of Chicago’s waste into the Mississippi River basin, contributing to the bloom in the Gulf of Mexico instead of Lake Michigan.
Sticks and carrots
Treating for toxins is a palliative approach, according to environmental advocates.
The broader issue with algae and bacteria blooms traces to phosphorus pollution. Since 2011, former Gov. Kasich spent more than $3 billion on Erie’s algae blooms, most of which went toward curbing sewage overflows from wastewater treatment plants and upgrading drinking water facilities.
However, in any given year, urban and suburban wastewater only contributes about 9% of the phosphorus flowing into western Lake Erie, at most. These wastewater treatment plants are regulated by the Clean Water Act, and Detroit’s — the watershed’s largest — has curtailed its phosphorus pollution by more than 51% since 2008.
Agricultural runoff, on the other hand, is responsible for as much as 89% and is not regulated under the Clean Water Act. In 2015, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, a binational pact between the U.S. and Canada, established a goal of slashing phosphorus pollution into western Erie by 20% by 2020, a mark that experts say will surely be missed.
Ohio’s Republican-controlled state legislature has prohibited farmers from spreading manure under certain conditions, such as ahead of a rain forecast or when soil is too saturated. Farmers who want to fertilize more than 50 acres are also required to be certified on best practices. But the majority of legislative and executive proposals have been voluntary.
Higgins, the farm bureau spokesman, said it would be rash to implement stricter regulations for farmers.
“Every farmer is different,” he said. “Whether it’s their soil type, their topography, their equipment — it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. That would be easy if we just said, ‘Every farmer do this.’ There’s 50 different ways to skin this problem.”
Last year, most farmers didn’t fertilize, because of the rainy weather. But this spring’s phosphorus pollution was the second highest since a team of government and university researchers began forecasting the bloom in 2002. Farmers say this absolves them and illustrates there are other sources that need to be investigated.
However, scientists who study the blooms say this is only confirmation that farm fields have been so overfertilized that residual fertilizer from previous years is continuing to contribute to the problem.
Considering the amount of phosphorus entering Lake Erie has held steady, Kapszukiewicz says, state efforts simply haven’t been enough. And those most affected by the fallout continue to be frustrated because the issue is out of their control.
“The state of Ohio has been pretty good at providing carrots,” Kapszukiewicz said. “It has been horrible at offering sticks. Carrots are good. Kasich spent $3 billion worth of carrots. The legislature gave us another $172 million worth of carrots this year. But all the carrots in the world aren’t going to fix this problem without a stick.”
A band of Toledoans petitioned to put a referendum on the February ballot that would create a Lake Erie Bill of Rights, a designation to grant the lake the same rights as a person. It would also allow environmentalists to sue on behalf of the lake.
It passed with 61% of voter support. Then, just as quickly as it was adopted, it was nixed by the legislature, which prohibited legal actions on “behalf of nature or an ecosystem.”
In a flurry of recent litigation in federal court, local communities and environmental groups are seeking a cap on the daily amount of nutrient pollution that can enter western Lake Erie. Under the Clean Water Act, any body of water deemed impaired needs to have a federally enforceable plan to remedy its degraded status.
The Ohio EPA had already deemed western Lake Erie impaired but designated it a low priority, which brought on another lawsuit calling for the federal government to force the state to take action.
But locals like Markie Miller already knew that Lake Erie is impaired. For them, the designation was simply semantics; they want progress.
“It’s like, if this has been a problem for so long, why haven’t we taken action before?” Miller said. “Why wasn’t it until it hit our kitchen sinks that we started going, ‘Maybe we need to solve this problem?’”
“The people at the water treatment plant are always ready to tell you that they are ready with an arsenal of chemicals, that we’re prepared for another 2014. But I’m like, is this just as bad as ingesting toxins? Is it worse? I don’t know. It does make you nervous.” — Markie Miller, an activist for Toledoans for Safe Water