Lake Erie’s Harmful Algal Bloom

Justin Chaffin is a senior researcher and research coordinator at Stone Laboratory. He specializes in Lake Erie phytoplankton ecology specifically in the cyanobacterial blooms.

He’s an expert at environmental analytical chemistry, aquatic chemistry, water sampling, water chemistry, water quality and environmental monitoring.

One of Chaffin’s current research projects is to develop a forecast for Lake Erie cyanobacterial bloom toxicity and incorporate the forecast into the NOAA Lake Erie HAB bulletin. A toxicity forecast will make water treatment plants best prepare to take out the toxins and produce safe and healthy drinking water.

One of his accomplishments is testing drinking water for harmful algal bloom toxins in coastal communities, by testing water treatment plant samples for microcystins, Stone Lab ensured safe drinking water for the people who live around Lake Erie.

During the bloom season (July to October), the harmful algal blooms grow rapidly and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, marine mammals, birds and local economies.

Can you please give me a brief history about Lake Erie’s algal bloom and how it started?

Chaffin: when the Lake Erie algal blooms occurred a lot of fresh water and the environment around the world got affected. There’s a type of algae called cyanobacteria, also called bluegreen algae, the problem with it is that they become over abundant and can reduce toxins that negatively affect human health and the environment. They crowd out good types of algae and that kind of bacteria is not really consumed by small turnpike creatures that live in the water called plankton so the bacteria doesn’t contribute to the food web and it produces toxins and they become abundant and shade out a good type of algae.

When did you start working or researching about this issue?

What caused the bloom and when did it become visible in the lake?

Chaffin: there’s two factors that cause the blooms. first one is the warm temperature, they need warm temperatures so that’s why they are a summertime occurrence and they need high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen. They need both of those factors. The phosphorus and nitrogen are found in fertilizers. When a farmer or a lawn care puts too much fertilizer on the land that excess fertilizer ends up in the water and causes the blooms. phosphorus and nitrogen are also found in raw sewage they’re found in an animal manure. all of those forms of pollution that carry fosters a nitrogen, well cause the bloom.

What happened in Toledo in 2014?

Chaffin: there was a bloom going on much like every year. the Lake Erie blooms have been around since around 2002 it’s when they really started taking off again. there’s a bloom in the Toledo area every year in the summer and it produces toxins but what happened in Toledo in 2014 that the bloom was producing toxin and the water treatment plant was unable to remove the toxins from the water for drinking purposes. And the toxins were distributed so the drinking water wasn’t available to the general public. Every year they dealt with toxins they had been able to remove it, but in August 2014, they failed to remove the toxins.

How harmful was it to the people of that area?

Chaffin: there was a do not drink advisory, but people were Still allowed to wash their clothes, take a shower but it wasn’t recommended to wash dishes with that water because it had toxins in it. Also, a lot of businesses were closed. If you’ had a restaurant in downtown Toledo you can’t prepare your food so they closed, and the hospitals in the area had to cancel all surgeries because they couldn’t sterilize their equipment. a brewing company had to throw out all the beer they brewed, Campbell’s soup which is in that area had to throw out all the soup that they made during the do not drink advisory. So that had a lot negative economic impacts associated with it.

How is climate change contributing to the bloom?

What can help reduce the bloom?

What did the people of Toledo do during these times?  

Some people that will only drink bottled water and they will never trust the water treatment plan again, which I think is not appropriate 99.9% of the time water plant treatment is removing toxins and taxing it down to a safe level for the water to drink.A group of citizens got a petition together and said they wanted to give Lake Erie the same rights as people do. So, they got enough people to sign a petition and they held a special vote and it passed. The general public voted on it in a special election in the past, but it really holds no legal ramifications. It’s more like what the people wanted to do. They wanted to start suing farmers and fertilizer companies, but there was no legal backing to that. And because I have kind of been talking bad about the farmers, most of them now are taking the right steps, they’re realizing that if they fertilize their field and the fertilizers end up in the Lake, they’re losing money and they’re just throwing money down the river. But they’re doing the correct procedures and making progress.