After Decades Of Working To Bring Lake Erie Back To Life, It Is In Danger Of Dying Again

By John Bacher

 “Way down upon the Maumee River, Far, far, away, There’s where  my heart is turning ever, That’s where the algal stays, Up and down old Lake Erie, Sadly I roam, Still longing for clean beaches, Without slimy foam, Old Lake Eire  is sad and dreary, Everywhere I roam,  Oh,   how my heart grows so weary, Making me moan and groan …”

The fish are dying in Lake Erie, alright. This one swamped up along the shore, surrounded by algae we humans are, most indeed, responsible for. Lake Erie dying for the second time in half a century? When are we ever going to learn.

“All around the beach I wandered, When I was young, Then may happy days I squandered, Many songs I sung, When I was playing with my brother, Happy was I, Now the green algae is piling  higher, Making the fish die. …”

Words  by John Bacher to the tune of ‘Way Down Upon The Swanee River

It may seem strange to those in Niagara, Ontario and the Buffalo/Erie County, New York area  that way down upon the Maumee River far, far away in Ohio  there is an impact on our region from the phosphorous loadings of the American corn belt.However, most public beaches on Lake Erie in the Niagara area were closed this summer due to piles of the attached filamentous green algae, (Cladophora).  Although the Maumee River, accounts for only five percent of the flow of Lake Erie, it contributes almost fifty percent of the phosphorous that is responsible,  through over fertilization,  such algae blooms.

The slime of Cladophora seriously impairs water quality. It also poses ,as the official Canada/U.S. watchdog body for the Great Lakes, the International Joint Commission (IJC) notes in a recently released study known as the Lake Erie Ecosystem Priority (LEEP), “potential microbiological health risks to wildlife and humans.” 

Noxious as they are, the algal blooms of Cladophora of Lake Erie’s eastern basin which foul Niagara’s beaches are some of the less dramatic  consequences of phosphorous loadings. In the western basin of the lake there are more nortorious free-floating mats of   cyanobacteria. They can produce toxins that pose a significant risk to fish, wildlife and human health.

Check out the green algae blobs in Lake Erie from this recent satellite image. This is the swill we eventually have to drink following costly treatment at regional and municpal water treatment plants. Whe are our federal, provincial, state and municipal governments going to say ‘no’ to swamping Lake Erie with life-smothering phosphorus and other crud for the second time in 50 years?

The deeper basins of Lake Erie have become blighted by what have been described as scientists studying this blight a “dead zones,” where dissolved oxygen levels are so low that fish and other aquatic life cannot survive. This condition, known as Hypoxia, takes place during the summer. It is created as a result of the decay of surface algae blooms at the bottom of the Lake Erie, robbing it of oxygen. 

The dead zone also creates a vicious cycle of further release of phosphorous from lake sediments, known as internal loading.  In the LEEP report, the IJC warns that, “decomposing algae  on the lake bottom may also play a role in the Type E botulism outbreaks which cause significant number of deaths of fish eating birds.”

The LEEP reports lists quite a long number of contributors to phosphorous loadings. These include lawn fertilizers and  effluent from Detroit’s sewage treatment plant. It stresses the need for more green infrastructure in urban areas such as roof gardens, green walls and pervious pavements.

While acknowledging a variety of factors, LEEP stresses the impact of six major watersheds flowing through Ohio’s corn belt. In addition to the Maumee River watershed, these are the Sandusky, the Grand, Vermillion, Raisin, Vermillion and Cuyahoga. It found that these six watersheds “collectively account for the majority of the total loads of phosphorous into the Lake.” Problems from the lack of riparian buffers  here have been increasing over time because of climate change as rainfall become heavier and more concentrated in the spring.

The LEEP report shows photographs of algae blooms in discharge  areas of shrinking forest cover in Ohio such as the Maumee watershed which is only in three per cent forest cover. Higher crop prices in recent years have encouraged farming in marginal lands and the loss of protective forest cover.

While concentrated in the United States algae blooms are also a growing problem in western Lake Erie in Canada. These are concentrated on the shores of Essex and Chatham-Kent, which have the worst forest cover in Canada. One way that we can help leap forward with LEEP would be if the Chatham-Kent council would approve having a tree by-law to protect its vanishing forests.

John Bacher is aNiagara, Ontario resident, and a long-time citizen activist for conservation of natural resources and senior member of the Niagara, Ontario-based group Preservation of Agricultural Lands Society, or PALS for short

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