An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency plan to stem pollutants that help toxic algae thrive in lakes and waterways will focus on six major streams, including the Scioto River in central Ohio.The Scioto and the Great Miami River have nothing to do with the poisonous blooms of blue-green algae that grow each summer in Lake Erie and in Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio. But they do contribute to a vast “dead zone” that appears each summer in the Gulf of Mexico.
Efforts to shrink the zone, which often exceeds 6,000 square miles, could include cutting manure and fertilizer runoff from central Ohio farms and putting new limits on pollutants released by sewage-treatment plants.
... Toxic algae grow thick in water polluted with phosphorus and nitrogen from sewage, manure and fertilizers. They produce liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people and have killed pets and wildlife. Dead and decomposing algae rob water of oxygen, creating dead zones in the Gulf and Lake Erie where very little can live.
The Columbus Dispatch
28 May 2013
S Hunt
Location: Ohio, USA
>>> FULL ARTICLE
No comments:
Post a Comment