cyanobacteria

Each summer, Lake Erie is plagued by toxic cyanobacterial blooms fed by phosphorus runoff from farm fields. Michigan is struggling to reduce the pollution by 40%.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order designed to “rebuild public trust in science.” But scientific groups claim the new administration is having the opposite effect.

Since the 1990s, cyanobacterial blooms have become increasingly common each summer in western Lake Erie. The blooms are cause by an overabundance of nutrients, namely phosphorus, that spills into the lake off farms.

A report says the state will not meet its initial target of reducing phosphorus flowing into Lake Erie by 40% this year. The main culprit: farm fertilizer runoff.

A federal district judge has approved the Ohio EPA's request to be added as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging that the Ohio EPA and the U.S. EPA devised a defective program to control phosphorus flowing into Lake Erie, a chief cause of harmful cyanobacterial blooms in the Great Lake.

Drainage systems carry away excess water, but they also take fertilizers that can fuel harmful algal blooms. Researchers, companies, and farmers are deploying systems that can control that flow.

Michigan and Ohio are both struggling to reduce the fertilizer runoff getting into Lake Erie which feeds cyanobacterial blooms, also called harmful algal blooms. Those toxic blooms can be hazardous to people and animals.

The H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program is hoping to get people to take photos for a time-lapse of developing wetlands, and then get more involved as citizen scientists.

Public Health Muskegon County warned of the toxins in Muskegon Lake, but found no evidence of them at Pere Marquette beach, a popular spot on Lake Michigan.

It's been 10 years since Toledo issued a "do not drink" order for its water system for three days due to cyanobacterial blooms near its water intake in Lake Erie. The blooms are not any worse, but they are not any less.