Massachusetts-sized Blobs of Toxic Algae [View all]

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This Year’s Wild, Wet Spring Is Feeding Massive Blobs of Toxic Algae

In Midwestern farm country, this year’s wet, wild spring—which is likely tied to climate change—has already severely delayed planting and led to massive amounts of soil erosion. Now the downstream effects are coming into focus.

In June, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected a Massachusetts-sized dead zone would alight upon the Gulf of Mexico, driven by a vast algae bloom fed by fertilizer runoff from the upper Midwest. As the bloom decays, it sucks oxygen out of the water. As a result, as NOAA puts it, “habitats that would normally be teeming with life become, essentially, biological deserts.”

And on Thursday, NOAA predicted that Lake Erie, which provides drinking water to 11 million people, will also experience a massive harmful algae bloom, starting in late July. The bloom is fed largely by phosphorus runoff in the Maumee River basin in Ohio, where the land is dominated by corn and soybean farms as well as massive indoor hog farms. Phosphorus is a key nutrient for plant growth, and farmers apply it to fields in the form of fertilizer (which comes mainly from phosphate mines in Florida) and hog manure.


Full Article: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/07/this-years-wild-wet-spring-has-led-to-massive-blobs-of-toxic-algae/


This is not only affecting ocean water, but our largest bodies of fresh water. Fresh water that millions of people depend on for survival.