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Is your lake/river/ocean safe to enter?

 
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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 10:55 am    Post subject: Is your lake/river/ocean safe to enter? Reply with quote

FWIW:

• It could soon be declared unsafe to swim in lakes, due to the presence of microcystins and other toxins that can be found in algae blooms.

•The Environmental Working Group (EWG) created an interactive map showing the location of algae blooms reported from 2010 to the present, and they’ve increased alarmingly.

• While there were about 60 news reports of algae blooms in 2010, this jumped to about 440 in 2018.

• Surface water, which includes water in rivers, lakes, streams and reservoirs, is a major source of drinking water in the U.S. — one that can become contaminated by toxic algae.

•You can be exposed to toxic blue-green algae by swimming or wading in contaminated water, eating contaminated seafood, drinking contaminated water or even by breathing in contaminated mist from the water.

• It could soon be declared unsafe to swim in lakes, due to the presence of microcystins and other toxins that can be found in algae blooms. Microsystins are nerve toxins produced by freshwater cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) that can cause fever, headaches, vomiting and seizures.

• Cyanobacteria and their toxins (which include microsystins and others) can also damage the liver and cause kidney, cardiac, reproductive and gastrointestinal effects.

• The toxic algae are showing up in lakes across the U.S., threatening not only swimmers but also wildlife and those who use the lakes for drinking water. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) created an interactive map showing the location of algae blooms reported from 2010 to the present, and they’ve increased alarmingly.

• While there were about 60 news reports of algae blooms in 2010, this jumped to about 440 in 2018.2 “We have been startled to find that these outbreaks are erupting everywhere: from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,” EWG reported.

For many more details, see
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/08/20/toxic-blue-green-algae-increasing-in-lakes.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3&utm_campaign=20190820Z1&et_cid=DM322534&et_rid=690144568
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boardsurfr



Joined: 23 Aug 2001
Posts: 1266

PostPosted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As long as the lawns are all pretty green monocultures all summer long, all is good Evil or Very Mad
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J64TWB



Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 1685

PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lackadaisical regulations Isobars. Someone is dumping too many nutrients in your water. Algal blooms are oxygen depleting (kill all) problems.

See more here.

https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/harmful-algal-blooms#cause
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J64TWB



Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 1685

PostPosted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 8:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

People need to be on top of this.
https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions
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U2U2U2



Joined: 06 Jul 2001
Posts: 5467
Location: Shipsterns Bluff, Tasmania. Colorado

PostPosted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 9:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

https://youtu.be/UK4572uROwg
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d0uglass



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 1286
Location: Bonita Springs, Florida

PostPosted: Sat Aug 24, 2019 8:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is a HUGE problem where I live in Florida, and it's especially exasperating for me as a marine biologist.

We've got about 31 different flavors of horrible toxic algae, all related to excess nutrients pouring out of cities, suburbs, and farms. Massive fish kills, and loss of our sensitive sea-bottom habitats like coral reefs and seagrass beds. To make it worse, we're destroying all of the natural nutrient-filters like the wetlands and forests that used to catch and clean the water as it ran off the land. Plus we're falling all over ourselves to bring ever more people to live in this state, overloading our crappy sewage, septic, and stormwater infrastructure.

The environmentalists and scientists like me have been screaming about it for decades, but the corrupt bozo politicians just want to sweep it all under the rug and keep the "gold rush" of unsustainable growth and development going until they've wrung every last drop of cash they can out of this poor peninsula.

Key word to know is "Eutrophication."

http://jimbodouglass.blogspot.com/2018/07/eutrophication-word-every-floridian.html

-James

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justall



Joined: 30 Jul 2007
Posts: 442

PostPosted: Sun Aug 25, 2019 5:10 pm    Post subject: Re: Is your lake/river/ocean safe to enter? Reply with quote

isobars wrote:
FWIW:

...

For many more details, see
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/08/20/toxic-blue-green-algae-increasing-in-lakes.aspx?utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art3&utm_campaign=20190820Z1&et_cid=DM322534&et_rid=690144568


Yes, increased issues reported here in the DC area, too (Lake Anna, Chesapeake Bay)

Good link/post d0uglass. Trying to do my part to help.

What do you think should be done, Iso?
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J64TWB



Joined: 24 Dec 2013
Posts: 1685

PostPosted: Sun Aug 25, 2019 7:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It’s a phosphorus problem. These 2 links explain it on a basic level. Only 11 states have managed to ban phosphorus used on lawns, golf courses, etc. None have banned it for agriculture use. Having the ban here in Wisconsin for about a decade has improved our lakes. Watersheds are connected so this stuff flows. Just look at the satellite images of the Mississippi delta. My lake has lawns everywhere but no phosphorus is entering. It’s mesotrophic for now (medium). All of our 15,000 lakes are at risk, some are goners. Wisconsin has more lakes than any other state in the lower 48. Get your state to ban phosphorus! It’s a great start. 1 pound of phosphorus can make 500 pounds of algae!

https://www.cleanlakesalliance.org/phosphorus/

http://mychesapeake.clearchoicescleanwater.org/uploads/88/docs/3548Algae_Adage.pdf
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