How Fertilizer Is Poisoning the Water Supply of 400,000 People

Coinciding with the return of a prodigal Cavalier, it's possible that many in northern Ohio didn't give second thought to a warning from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that this summer would be another bad one for toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie. But there's no remaining ignorant about the situation now.

Fueled on fertilizer and warm weather, the toxic algae has been blooming like crazy, making 2014 a bad year for anyone around the lake, the fish in it, and the 400,000 people in and around Toledo, who can't shower or drink the water from their taps.

On Saturday, Toledo officials issued a warning not to drink the water, after they discovered high levels of the toxin microcystin in the water, coming from a huge bloom of the cyanobacteria (or, "blue-green algae") microcystis in Lake Erie's Maumee Bay, where the city of 284,000 draws its drinking water. Boiling tap water only concentrates the toxins further, so residents were left emptying store shelves of bottled water and lining up at water distribution centers, as their water supply turned a sickly shade of Satanic vomit-green.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "the presence of high levels of cyanotoxins in recreational water and drinking water may cause a wide range of symptoms in humans including fever, headaches, muscle and joint pain, blisters, stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, mouth ulcers, and allergic reactions."

It gets worse: Microsystin has also been linked to liver inflammation and hemorrhage, kidney damage, and "potential tumor growth," the EPA adds.

Big toxic algae blooms are dangerous for those who rely on the lake for water, but they can be fatal for lake dwellers as well. As the bloom decays, it consumes oxygen out of the water, creating hypoxic conditions, leading to plant and animal die-off.

While cyanobacteria occurs naturally in Lake Erie, the giant blooms of the toxic algae are anything but natural. Nature might provide the sunshine and warm weather that allows the cyanobacteria to flourish, but its farms and towns near waterways that give the blue-green algae their super food: phosphorus.

High use of phosphorus-based fertilizers and the presence of livestock near water supplies, combined with waste-water and run-off from towns and cities near the waterways has raised the levels of phosphorus in the lake, leading to record-breaking blooms in 2011, and above average blooms since. Even invasive zebra mussels are in part responsible. They feed on green algae, which are a natural competitor to blue-green algae, and alter the chemical composition of the water, according to NOAA.

Never a part of the country known for clean water—the Cuyahoga River feeds into Lake Erie, and it was famously so polluted that it caught fire—toxic algae blooms were common from the 1960s through the 1980s. Over the decades, as manufacturing left the region and phosphorus was banned from laundry detergent in 1988, toxic algae blooms stopped occurring for 20 years, before coming back in record-breaking proportions.

This morning, the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department declared the water safe to drink again. A weekend without water is bad enough, but the problem is only projected to get worse. Climate change will bring more warm weather and heavier rains to the area, causing sewers to flood more often.

One unfortunate irony for the Toledo-Lucas County area was that, "due to the water situation in Northwest Ohio, the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) that the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department was conducting in conjunction with Ohio Department of Health will not be occurring" this week. A vicious cycle rolls on.