Toxic Algae Threatens Florida's Gulf Coast 99
As reported by Discovery News, After Toledo had to temporarily ban residents from using tap water last weekend because of a toxic algae bloom on Lake Erie, you probably figured that we’d filled the quota of bad algae-related news for the summer. No such luck, unfortunately. Off the Gulf Coast of Florida, the biggest red tide bloom seen in Florida in nearly a decade already has killed thousands of fish. The bloom, which contains the microorganism Karenia brevis,
may pose a public health threat to Floridians if it washes ashore, which is expected to happen in the next two weeks, according to Reuters.
NBC News says this is the largest such bloom seen since 2006 — approximately 50 x 80 miles.
An economic and environmental disaster (Score:5, Informative)
The smell from this can be horrendous and is bad for tourism. Several counties on the West coast of Florida have issued restrictions on the use of fertilizers. The fertilizers used on lawns is blamed for the red tide outbreaks by feeding the organisms, it is believed. The effect on the environment can be harmful in depleting and causing population loss of fish and other species. A large portion of the runoff of fertilizer is from entirely ornamental landscape applications, a complete waste of resources, especially considering the issue of Phosphate depletion. I would like to see a broad restrictions on such fertilizers except for production of food crops. That some people would waste the resource nd threaten the ecosystem, for the vanity of a perfect green yard is outrageous. In Florida, they often use grass species which are pretty much impossible to keep going without these massive applications, such as St. Augustine. When you stop throwing the chemicals on the yard, the St. Augustine will mostly go away.
The unmentionable plays a role (Score:0, Informative)
.
The unmentionable. [wikipedia.org]
Companies like Synagro [synagro.com] and WeCare Organics [wecareorganics.com] take municipal waste and deposit it on farm fields where your food is grown. [usgs.gov]
There is a lot of money in this - the kitty is so rich, [fbi.gov] sometimes back room deals are made [mlive.com] to keep the gravy train rolling and sludge hauling contracts active.
Powerful lobbies, such as the WEF [wef.org] and AWWA [awwa.org] "educate" the political establishment to keep nutrient standards low. [biosolidsblog.com]
Look up what happened in the Chesapake Bay.... [aqualaw.com]
Algae blooms are the inevitable result.
On the other side, people have been trying for years to get labeling standards improved so consumers can make informed choices as to if they want to eat food grown in sludge, but year over year the bill dies in committee. [washingtonwatch.com] The opposing side doesn't have the money to counter the powerful WEF lobby, so congressional masters kill the bill in committee every year its introduced.
One can only hope is that now that algae blooms are happening with greater frequency and more people are being impacted, that new nutrient standards will become the norm and this sludge spreading nonsense will end. [wfae.org]
Spoiler Alert: FTA (Score:5, Informative)
Red Tide, which happens in other coastal areas as well, is a phenomenon that's been occurring for centuries.
Undoubtedly, there are anthropogenic influences on this and every facet of the environment. Rightfully so, restrictions on fertilizer use are already in place, or pending in, affected areas.
Though it is inconvenient and unprofitable in the short term, the collective conscience of the governed requires the governors to care about and remedy shit like this.
Can be dangerous for humans (Score:5, Informative)
Re:So... (Score:5, Informative)
There is no algae that eats oil.
Maybe no algae, but plenty of bacteria do.
Anyway, don't discount the number of farmers in Canada who've done the same thing with manure, and screw up the lakes too. There was a farmer upstream of Pittock Dam [wikipedia.org], who used to do the same thing. Took the ministry of environment(MoE) in Ontario nearly 25 years to "get around" to finally fine the dumb bastard. Or as many people put it, "the dumb french bastard." Since dumping manure on frozen ground is very common in Quebec as well.
Re:Synthetic Grass (Score:4, Informative)
The trick is to *plant* weeds, preferably wild local plants that won't be invasive and are pleasant and well-adapted to the climate. Repeatedly massacre anything that put out thorns or such, and in a year or two you'll have such a nice dense mat of well-established and non-noxious wild growth that the unpleasant stuff will be hard pressed to sneak in. Essentially you're cultivating a lawn that can out-compete noxious weeds with little or no help from you.
Of course the drought thing can still do a number - between the beaver and the buffalo we massacred the most important animals on the continent for retaining surface ground water (the one built temporary ponds and channels that stored and distributed water and rich sediment, while the other churned standing grasses into the soil so they could break down and maintain a healthy, water-retaining loam rather than remaining on the surface and slowly oxidizing away.)