Zebra & Quagga Mussels are Change Agents in Lake Erie→

“Creatures living on, near, or below the bottom of the lake—is “fundamentally changed from its past,” according to a paper published online in the current journal of the Journal of Great Lakes Research. Lyubov Burlakova, who works with the Great Lakes Center at SUNY Buffalo State, is the first author. The coauthors are Alexander Y. Karatayev, director of the center; Christopher Pennuto, a research associate with the center and biology professor at Buffalo State; and Christine Mayer, associate professor of ecology at the University of Toledo.

“The story of Lake Erie shows how profoundly human activity can affect an ecosystem,” said Burlakova. She traces that activity as far back as the early 1800s, when people cut down forests and built sawmills and dams.”

SUNY Buffalo State

This one a long time have I watched. All it's history many have looked away… to the future, to the horizon. Never our mind on what is best for the lake. Hmm? What are we doing?

Lake of the Woods Algal Blooms are Worsening→

Ron Meador, reporting for MinnPost:

Lee Grim

“Key points from the International Joint Commission’s second “State of the Basin” report, released on Tuesday:

- Massive blooms of blue-green algae are on the rise in Lake of the Woods, despite reductions in flows of phosphorus into upstream lakes and streams from industrial polluters; some of this seems to be driven by phosphorus releases from lake sediments, and some by climate change.
- Rivers in the basin are showing improved water quality, primarily because of controls on paper mills and other industrial sources.
- Walleye, lake trout and sturgeon populations have been recovering as a result of special management efforts, and certain bird populations have returned to healthy levels thanks to reduced pesticide use.
- Mercury levels in fish remain high in many lakes, such that anglers are advised to check the status of public-health advisories before eating any fish caught anywhere in the basin.”

IJC State of the Basin Report

We always find what we dumped in.

Lakes Legacy→

Tony Randgaard, writing for MinnPost:

Joe Bielawa

“Last week, Mound Mayor Mark Hanus and state Sen. David Osmek, R-Mound, went on the offensive to blame the Met Council for the disastrous recent overflow of raw sewage into Lake Minnetonka and three other lakes. The Met Council fired back, stating that its sanitary sewage systems worked normally during the record weekend rainfall and were not the cause of the overflow. While this is sorted out, it might be instructive to look back at how we once worked together to clean up our landmark city lakes.”

Control, control, you must learn control! To be Honorable is to face the truth, and choose. Give off light, or darkness. Be a candle, or the night.”

Mercury Pollution Decreasing in Minnesota→

USGS news room:

“Methylmercury contamination is decreasing in some lakes in northern Minnesota as a result of reduced mercury pollution, according to a U.S. Geological Survey study. Mercury from man-made pollution is converted in lakes and wetlands to methylmercury, a toxic form of mercury that accumulates in fish.

The study also found that levels of mercury, sulfate and hydrogen ion in precipitation decreased from 1998 to 2012 in northern Minnesota. These decreases likely resulted from reduced atmospheric pollution in the U.S. and Canada, and may have contributed to the reduced methylmercury contamination in the [Voyageurs National] park’s lakes.”

J Stephen Conn

Additional information

Do or do not. There is no try.

Acid Rain's Dirty Legacy→

Brooks Miner, reporting for FiveThirtyEight:

“Acid rain was rare among environmental problems in that it had a viable solution, and these days it’s often hailed as an environmental success story. The market worked as intended, sulfur and nitrogen emissions declined and rain became less acidic. And just two weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the federal government’s authority to regulate power plants in this manner.

But what about the lakes and streams that were already so acidic? Nearly 25 years since those changes to the Clean Air Act, water bodies in the Northeast have recovered, while those further south have not.”

Flickr - Rainforest Action Network

Decrease the burden on lakes affected by past emissions, lower pollution in the present would. 

Project: Murky Waters (WisconsinWatch)→

The Capital Times and Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism collaborated on a four-part series to examine threats to the quality of the Madison area’s spectacular lakes, and ambitious new efforts that seek to improve them. 

Part 1:

WisconsinWatch

“The Yahara lakes — Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa and Kegonsa — are no clearer than they were 30 years ago, despite intensive efforts to improve them. During that time, lake scientists said, the increased heavy rainfalls that are part of climate change most likely offset gains from better land use practices, by washing giant volumes of pollution into the lakes.
“They are flatlining,” said Steve Carpenter, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who has studied the Yahara lakes since the 1970s. “There are no trends in the lakes. The lake water quality is not getting better. It’s not getting notably worse. It’s as if the interventions we’re doing are just holding the line, running in place like the red queen in Alice in Wonderland.””

— http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2014/04/23/yahara-beach-closures-highlight-algae-bacteria-threats/

Part 2:

Mike DeVries -- The Capital Times

“According to experts, agriculture accounts for roughly 70 percent of the phosphorus runoff in watersheds across the state, with urban runoff accounting for the remaining 30 percent.
It is closer to an 80-20 split in the Yahara Watershed in Dane County, said Carpenter, who hopes to find a way for the dairy industry to thrive while protecting water quality.
The agricultural runoff that often turns Madison’s lakes unpleasant by creating algal blooms that look and smell bad, clog boat motors and close beaches is expected to only get worse.”

— http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2014/04/30/manure-digesters-seen-as-best-hope-for-curbing-lake-pollution-but-drawbacks-remain/

Part 3:

 City of Madison Engineering Department

“A Milwaukee scientist who has found sewage migrating from old pipes through soil and into the stormwater lines that drain to lakes or streams says the problem is likely to occur in Madison and cities nationwide.

“In any urban area, this is going to be an issue,” said Sandra McLellan, professor and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences.
From 2008 to 2012, McLellan and colleagues from her laboratory analyzed more than 1,300 water samples from stormwater outfalls in six Milwaukee-area watersheds, looking for a bacterium called Bacterioides that indicates the presence of human sewage...

They found the marker in every watershed. In the Menomonee River watershed alone, more than half of the outfalls were chronically contaminated with sewage.”

— http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2014/05/07/leaky-sewer-pipes-could-export-viruses-to-lakes/

Provided here to explain consequences on lake water quality, a lot of information is.  Hmmmmmm.

Trends in Water Transparency for Midwest Lakes

Grace Hong

From National Science Foundation Discoveries:

“Scientists engaged in a study of long-term water quality trends in Midwestern lakes found some good news: little change in water clarity in more than 3,000 lakes. Look deeper, and the research becomes something more: a chronicle of a new source of data for scientists, data from residents of towns and villages surrounding the lakes.

The results are published this week in a paper in the journal PLOS ONE. The paper co-authors analyzed almost a quarter of a million observations taken over seven decades on 3,251 lakes in eight Midwestern states.”

— http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131238&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click

Adam Hinterthuer, writing for University of Wisconsin - Madison:

“What the authors found was that, on an individual scale, some lakes were getting clearer while others were not. However, says Lottig, combining all that data together indicates that there is a slightly increasing trend in water clarity at a regional scale. “Unfortunately,” he says, “the data don’t exist to explain those patterns.” Lottig hopes efforts like the “Cross-Scale Interaction” or “CSI Limnology” project, an international team of scientists that he’s a part of, can collect global data on things like water chemistry and aquatic biology that will add context to the data generated by citizens.

Though the citizen scientist dataset limited his team’s ability to explain the patterns they observed, Lottig says it suggests that such information can play a role in shaping future research — a possibility that has some scientific organizations taking notice.”

— http://www.news.wisc.edu/22805

Remember, science's strength flows from the sample size. But beware. Controls, randomization, replication, and statistical inference. The light side are they. Once you start down this path, forever will it dominate your destiny. 

Canada's Research Lakes

NewsBlog at Nature:

“Fans of environmental science can now have a direct role in helping Canada’s unique Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) continue to do the research it has done for decades.

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), based in Winnipeg, took over running the ELA on 1 April, after the federal government eliminated funding for the decades-old environmental research facility (see ‘Test lakes face closure’ and ‘Last minute reprieve for Canada’s research lakes’). The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba have stepped in to provide money to run the facility and conduct research for the next several years, but more cash is needed to restore research at the ELA to its former levels.

So the IISD has turned to the public. It launched an appeal on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo seeking contributions to expand research and make the ELA less dependent on government largesse.”

Click on image to learn more

Lake Whatcom's Pollution Puzzle→

Ralph Schwartz, reporting for the Bellingham Herald (WA):

“City officials have been working for years to reduce the amount of phosphorus draining into Lake Whatcom. This year, officials plan to clean up their own backyard by improving stormwater treatment at Bloedel Donovan Park, which has especially high levels of phosphorus in its soil.”

Lake Champlain Cleanup Plan→

Beth Garbitelli, writing for the Associated Press:

Lynn Gardner

“Vermont officials posted online a hefty plan Tuesday to reduce pollution in Lake Champlain from stormwater runoff, and now await word on whether it goes far enough in addressing federal concerns.

Decades of runoff have contributed to dirtying Vermont’s signature lake and causing excessive algae growth. The pollution has turned the water murky, hurt tourism, depressed property values and increased water treatment costs.

Cleaning up the lake has been a longstanding state goal, but lawmakers and officials say the state is under more pressure now to meet federal targets. If the latest plan doesn’t measure up, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could impose expensive regulations on sewage plants in the state.”

Bring plan here. Question it we will. 

Authorities Investigate Pollution in China's Iconic Erhai Lake→

Gao Shan, reporting for RFA's Mandarin Service (translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie):

“An iconic lake at the heart of a popular beauty spot in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan has turned milky-white with pollution from nearby companies, local residents and officials said.

Local residents began posting photos online in recent days of the now turbid and white waters of Erhai Lake in the tourist region of Dali, historically famed for its crystal-clear waters.

”The government and the companies are all in it together.””

Erhai Lake, April 6, 2011.

Greed transcends economic or political systems. Capitalism and communism both treat the environment as an externality. Ponzi scheme you are in, consume you it will.

MPCA issues early analysis of study on sulfates and wild rice→

Stephanie Hemphill, reporting for MinnPost:

“Minnesota’s current standard to protect the iconic grain is ten milligrams of sulfate per liter. But industry has attacked that standard as unscientific. Mines, wastewater treatment plants, and other industries dispose of sulfate in rivers, and native groups have long complained the stands they rely on have been declining.

The research shows that bacteria convert sulfate into sulfide in the sediments in which wild rice typically grows. Researchers found strong correlations between the amount of sulfide in the porewater (water that flows in and around the sediments) and the amount of sulfate in surface water.

The agency concluded that the range at which sulfide limits the plants’ ability to grow corresponds to a range of sulfate in the surface water of 4 to 16 milligrams per liter – neatly bracketing the current standard.”

A Lake Manager’s Notebook: Citizens’ Roles in Managing Lakes→

Dick Osgood, posted at Conservation Minnesota:

“Most lake impairments are the result of widespread and hardwired changes to the landscape. BMPs, at best, provide minimal mitigation. In addition, many impaired lakes no longer are responsive to pollution reductions because the impairments are internalized.

Then, should we abandon these practices? No. We should urge their use in a larger management context, applying them strategically as part of a management plan that has clear expectations and outcomes.”

The job of lake protection and restoration is difficult and it requires changing systems.

Tahoe program targets runoff pollution from urban areas→

Jeff DeLong:

“An effort to get a clearer picture of the worst pollutants flowing from urban areas into Lake Tahoe is gaining momentum, with the program’s supporters insisting one of the most important benefits will be determining how well the costly projects are addressing the problem.

By next fall, some 15 monitoring stations are expected to be operating around the Tahoe Basin as experts zero in on pollutants contained in urban runoff entering the lake.”

Vijay Kalakoti

Measure, plan, do.

Fish forced into the ‘foraging arena’ when lakes lose their trees→

Adam Hinterthuer, writing for University of Wisconsin-Madison:

As water levels drop and submerged trees rise above the waterline, some fish are forced into the "foraging arena" to face predators

“In attempts to predict what climate change will mean for life in lakes, scientists have mainly focused on two things: the temperature of the water and the amount of oxygen dissolved in it.

But a new study from University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers is speaking for the trees — specifically, the dead ones that have toppled into a lake’s near shore waters.

For fish in northern Wisconsin lakes, at least, these trees can be the difference between pastures of plenty and the Hunger Games.”

Interesting study from the Center of Limnology.

Watch the Great Lakes Freeze Over→

Time lapse satellite imagery shows the Great Lakes icing over in one of the coldest winters in memory

Byran Walsh, reporting for Time:

“You can measure a winter in many ways: temperature records, snow cover, even travel delays. But to truly see how frigid this winter has been—at least for the eastern half of the U.S.—you need to go way up. Satellite imagery shows that an incredible 88% of the Great Lakes—Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie—are now frozen over. That’s the largest ice cover the Great Lakes have experienced since 1994, and it means that there is an astounding 82,940 sq. miles (214,814 sq. km) of ice covering the biggest collection of fresh water in the world.”

As we've changed the system, things that were once normal are now seen as abnormal. 

Fertilizer Limits Sought Near Lake Erie to Fight Spread of Algae→

Michael Wines, reporting for the New York Times:

“A United States-Canadian agency called on Wednesday for swift and sweeping limits on the use of fertilizer around Lake Erie to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering the water and creating a vast blanket of algae each summer, threatening fisheries, tourism and even drinking water.

In a report on the algae problem, the agency, the International Joint Commission, said that fertilizer swept by rains from farms and lawns was a major source of phosphorus in the lake. It recommended that crop insurance be tied to farmers’ adoption of practices that limit fertilizer runoff, and that Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania ban most sales of phosphorus-based lawn fertilizers.”

Other States have banned phosphorus lawn fertilizers, and the evidence is that such bans are effective in protecting water quality.

For Great Lakes' Sake→

Greg Breining, reporting for ENSIA:

“Big as they are, these lakes are not immune to harm. Many have already suffered overfishing, the introduction of exotic species, industrial pollution, and algae blooms and other signs of nutrient inflow from deforestation, agriculture and sewage disposal. And, of course, climate change. All these influences stand to impair the gifts these large lakes provide.

Fortunately, as human pressures increase, our understanding of large lakes is increasing as well. And lessons learned on one continent can help solve problems on another. Researchers studying large lakes around the world share insights pertinent to management, whether it is mitigating the damage of invasive species in U.S. Great Lakes, protecting a rare freshwater seal from industrial contamination of Lake Baikal, or balancing concerns of biodiversity with the needs of African fishermen.”

A great story on the world's big lakes.

Madison's lakes are 'impaired' by runoff-driven weeds and algae, state says→

Steven Verburg, reporting for the Wisconsin State Journal:

“The state will add Dane County’s chain of lakes to its list of “impaired waters” because of heavy nutrient pollution from surrounding farmland that causes unnatural weed growth and nasty-smelling algae blooms, state officials said Friday.

Dane County officials expressed concern that the listing of the four Yahara lakes — Mendota, Monona, Waubesa and Kegonsa — might upset or undermine extensive cleanup efforts already underway in cooperation with local farmers. It would be the first time the lakes landed on the state list because of nutrient pollution.”

Don't you have to call a spade a spade?

State Draft Plan Addresses Phosphorus Pollution in Lake Champlain→

John Herrik, reporting for VTDIGGER.ORG:

“The state is undertaking a complex Lake Champlain cleanup that will likely alter the state’s farmland, forests and streams over the next decade.

The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets released a draft plan for restoring the Lake Champlain Basin this month. The consortium must comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s request to clean up the lake or face funding holds and strict regulations, according to David Mears, commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation....
The plan, which will be vetted during several public meetings this winter, includes tightening the state’s agriculture programs, storm water management practices, ensuring river channel stability, updating forest management practices and watershed protection plans. These are considered “nonpoint sources,” unlike the closely regulated facility discharges around the lake, that dump phosphorous [sic] into the lake.”

Start with a good plan, and find effective levers to change the numerous systems that have been allowed pollution to flow into the lake for so long.