Environment | Article published Saturday, September 20, 2003
POLLUTION
Lake Erie’s health takes downward turn

By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER


ANN ARBOR - Hailed as one of North America’s greatest environmental success
stories of the 20th century, Lake Erie has taken a sharp turn for the worse.

Experts widely acknowledge now that the comeback is over. Some attending a
two-day, U.S.-Canada conference here yesterday said they even fear the lake is
sinking back into a condition reminiscent of its dark days of the early 1970s.

"It’s clear from briefings we have received that Lake Erie has been
backsliding and is being polluted again," Herb Gray, chairman of the
International Joint Commission’s Canadian section, said while opening a
workshop devoted to Lake Erie issues.

The workshop was entitled "Lake Erie: Deja Vu?"

Mr. Gray said he thinks of Lake Erie’s fickle ecosystem as "Deja Voodoo."

Added John E. Gannon, an IJC senior scientist: "There are a lot of changes
going on with the lake that we don’t understand very well."

The IJC is a 95-year-old government agency that helps the United States and
Canada resolve boundary water issues. Its conferences are held once every two
years. This year’s ends today.

Some of Lake Erie’s hottest topics, such as its widely publicized dead zone
in the central basin north of Cleveland, aren’t as mysterious as they may
seem. Scientists said a dead zone - an oxygen-depleted pocket of water that
can’t sustain life - probably has existed to some degree in central Lake Erie
for decades, albeit it may be larger and move around at times.

Other problems clearly have thrown researchers for a loop.

Unexplained botulism outbreaks on the lake’s eastern side have killed more
than 40,000 birds since 1999 and hundreds of thousands of fish.

The disease has hit numerous species, but not Lake Erie’s two biggest sport
fish: walleye and yellow perch.

The latest episode far exceeds the region’s previous worst outbreak, when
12,000 gulls and loons died of botulism in Lake Michigan in 1963-64, said
Sandra George, Environment Canada’s Lake Erie programs coordinator.

Researchers are baffled by the cause. One theory is that zebra mussels and
another invasive species, round gobies, may spread contaminants up the food
chain.

Botulism deaths are down this year, but Ms. George expressed caution. "Our
largest mortalities usually occur in October and November. We’re hopeful, but
we’re not out of the woods," she said.

The western basin, near Toledo, has seen a resurgence of a toxic form of algae
each of the past few summers, especially a type known as microcystis. The algae
likely is caused by an abundance of phosphorus, the common farm fertilizer and
component of human waste. Phosphorus has been on the rise since 1997, acting as
a nutrient for the algae, despite billions of dollars spent on sewage
treatment.

By far the biggest source of phosphorus is the Maumee River, where officials
fear efforts to curb farm runoff with buffer strips may be failing. Maumee’s
runoff problem is so bad, the river carries more sediment into Lake Erie than
all the tributaries in Lake Superior combined, and Lake Superior is 20 times
larger than Lake Erie, said Dr. Jeff Reutter, an aquatic ecologist at Ohio
State University and director of OSU’s Stone Laboratory near Put-in-Bay. "We
need to assess the effectiveness of our buffers. These are things we think are
all doing a great job, but we’re not sure," he said.

Complicating Lake Erie’s recovery efforts is an old problem - airborne
mercury - that scientists now view as a far greater threat to public health
than previously thought. Exposure can lead to anything from neurological
problems in infants to heart disease among adults.

Each of the Great Lakes acts as a catch-basin. Lake Erie has the highest
mercury concentration, largely because of its industry and its shallow depth.

Coal-fired power plants now far surpass incinerators as the top source for the
pollutant. Scientists said people won’t stop eating Great Lakes fish, despite
advisories. They said the best way to protect them is with tougher mercury
controls at power plants, something the Bush administration has been reluctant
to do under its Clear Skies Initiative.

"If we’re going to solve these problems, we must solve them at the source,"
said David Carpenter, a researcher at the State University of New York at
Albany.