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Farming Practices, Climate Change At Root of Toledo Water Pollution

Suzanne Goldenberg

US environment correspondent

theguardian.com

The toxins that contaminated the water supply of the city of Toledo – leaving 400,000 people without access to safe drinking water for two days – were produced by a massive algae boom. But this is not a natural disaster.

Water problems in the Great Lakes – the world’s largest freshwater system – have spiked in the last three years, largely because of agricultural pollution. Toledo draws its drinking water from Lake Erie.

Residents were warned not to drink the water on Saturday, after inspectors at the city’s water treatment plant detected the toxin known as microcystin. The toxin is produced by microcystis, a harmful blue-green algae; it causes skin rashes and may result in vomiting and liver damage if ingested. It has been known to kill dogs and other animals and boiling the water does not fix the problem; it only concentrates the toxin.

The current bloom of microcystis is concentrated in MaumeeBay in Lake Erie’s western basin, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). A second, smaller bloom has appeared in SanduskyBay.

Read the rest of the story in The Guardian here: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/toledo-water-pollution-farming-practices-lake-erie-phosphorus

Simply stated, if you put fertilizer on cropland, you grow crops; if you put fertilizer on your yard, you grow grass; and if you put fertilizer in water bodies, you grow algae.