Capture that “P”

With the horrific pictures of green drinking water in Lake Erie this past summer, attention has returned to farms and golf courses as the major culprit in what TV pundits term “algae blooms,” but really are explosions of Cyanobacteria (bacteria with chlorophyll).

“Golf courses should plan to capture runoff in their ponds,” says Eugene Braig, program director for aquatic ecosystems at Ohio State University.

While Lake Erie got the headlines last year, all of the states bordering the Great Lakes, the Mississippi watershed and other bodies of water are under the microscope. Studies of Lake Erie show that, while P dropped after the Clean Water Act of 1972 was passed 40 years ago, since 1995 the levels of dissolved P actually have been increasing in watersheds.

Production of Cyanobacteria depends on the Nitrogen-Phosphorus ratio. A ratio of 16:1 indicates P enrichment and presages trouble. In severe cases the ratio can be as low as 2:1 or 1:1. While C and N are the primary nutrients in lakes, they usually are so abundant that they are not limiting. Availability of soluble Phosphorus in water is relatively small. When a lot of P shows up, growth explodes.

Blooms are easier to manage with a well-timed algaecide program when they are contained on-site in a pond than when they get into nearby creeks, streams and lakes, Braig says.

“I expect Cyanobacteria will continue to be a prominent feature of the aquatic community,” Braig says. That said, he believes that Lake Erie will recover quickly from last year’s news-making bloom – in perhaps two or three years, the time it takes the Lake to turn over its water load. Meantime, he adds, the general public will downplay its own role in the problem while pointing to ag, golf and landscapers as villains.

Erie is the only Great Lake whose shoreline is dominated by cropland and human settlement. Ohio passed SB15 in August 2014 which requires those who apply fertilizer to 50 or more acres to get a certification just like the long-standing pesticide applicators license. The fee is $30.

In addition, the Ohio House is considering HB490, called the Ag Pollution Abatement Program. It would move regulatory authority from the Department of Natural Resources to the Ag Department. Braig says he thinks it is a good move, but it may not happen.

Several oddball amendments have been attached to HB490, including one relaxing regulation of puppy mills, another allowing out-of-staters to withdraw water from Lake Erie (which is contrary to existing law in Ohio, other states and Canada), and one that would allow phone companies to stop servicing landlines.

Cyanobacteria do produce toxins that, in concentrations as low as 4-20 parts per billion will affect the central nervous system, liver and skin of humans. While there have been no human deaths reported as a result of Cyanobacteria, livestock and wildlife have died. That is likely because animals see the poster-paint green water as nutrient rich and drink it while humans are repelled by the color.