Algae- Whats the truth

[ErieEye]

As a fellow fostorian I'm sure you are aware of the sewer upgrades that were done within our own town as 1 example. We have a drainage ditch that runs out of town along our property. Back in '97 we had a heavy rain event that caused our own sewer system to overflow. Every limb and branch lining that ditch had toilet paper hanging from it. That no longer happens because of our own epa mandated upgrades. Every small town surrounding fostoria has had epa mandated sewer upgrades done over the last 10 years. As far as the field tile goes, the phosphorus load lake erie is getting has switched from that phosphorus that is directly attached to the soil particles i.e. surface runoff to dissolved phosphorus which is getting flushed out of the fields through field tile. The problem with that is that dissolved phosphorus is more redily available for the algae to use and grow on.

[Spoon addiction]

Wakina, I do believe what he was referring to when he said "loosing 10s of thousands of acres of crp ground" was Conservation reserve program lands "crp grass lands", also called filter strips, and or riparian buffers, basically a lot of contracts between the farmers and the conservation program have been up within the last 10-15 years resulting in "10s of thousands of acres" returned to crop producing lands. All of those grasses and buffer zones utilizes vegitation that consumes phosphorus and nitrogen etc.

[wakina]

As a fellow fostorian I'm sure you are aware of the sewer upgrades that were done within our own town as 1 example. We have a drainage ditch that runs out of town along our property. Back in '97 we had a heavy rain event that caused our own sewer system to overflow. Every limb and branch lining that ditch had toilet paper hanging from it. That no longer happens because of our own epa mandated upgrades. Every small town surrounding fostoria has had epa mandated sewer upgrades done over the last 10 years. As far as the field tile goes, the phosphorus load lake erie is getting has switched from that phosphorus that is directly attached to the soil particles i.e. surface runoff to dissolved phosphorus which is getting flushed out of the fields through field tile. The problem with that is that dissolved phosphorus is more redily available for the algae to use and grow on.

I can say this and that is the fact that we both want the same thing! We want the excessive algae blooms to stop.

I can't argue about the dissolved phosphorus vs phosphorus that is in the run off that never sees a tile. I can state that the modern method and the environmentally recommended way of applying fertilizer is to inject it directly into the ground to avoid the runoff affect that happens with the surface application of fertilizer. Also the no till method of soil preperation is recommended.

Not sure if there is a way for raw sewage to access the the environment during heavy rains from the sewage treatment plant in Fostoria. I will find out for sure as I have a friend that is still working at the sewage treatment plant as well as a relative who just retired from there earlier this year. Wayne and Bradner both have the open lagoons for the treatment plants and as I understand it both have over flowed several times in heavy extended rains. None of the mentioned Cities or villages send sewage to the Maumee if the were to discharge raw sewage, Fostoria and Wayne would both endup in the Portage River while Bradners' may end up in the Sandusky River but I am not sure which it is for Bradner. In any event there should be no sewage getting into any of the watersheds.

Here is some more reading on the subject.

http://www.epa.gov/lakeerie/primer.html

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...rie-phosphorus

[ErieEye]

I can actually show you the pipe that the sewage would run out of, it still exists right next to our property. The only reason it doesn't overflow anymore is because storm water can no longer enter the system. As far as the examples given, these towns all used to add to the phosphorus load that lake erie used to get. The river that carries it to the lake is a moot point in my opinion. The point I was making is if we had to do upgrades here I would assume towns within the Maumee watershed had to do it also. As far as what I said farm runoff, that is information that I got from a special that fox 36 had about lake eries algae problems a couple months ago. That is what a representative from the farm bureau said. I'm gonna try to find that show on the internet. If I can I'll post it.

[limitlypps]

urbanites apply 100x more fertilizer/phosphorus to there lawns /sq ft. than farmers apply per acre.So watch out where you are pointing your finger.Now sewage is all together another batch of apples. I do understand that if farmers that live in close proximity to lakes and spread there liquid hog and cow manures to there land without immediately incorporating it into the ground, are hugely applicable to phosphorus run off.I do farm and I do my best to spread fertilizers in the fall to leach into the ground to avoid spring applications of run off, and do foliar micro fertilizer applications in the summer to crops/for absorption, that never touch the ground.I do concern myself with the bees and monarchs and bees are plentiful, monarchs are a concern, I try to leave as much milkweed I can in hedge rows to help them out.And, fishing is certainly a passion of mine and a privilege to do so.

[ErieEye]

Actually I'm going to completely disagree with you on that. Yes there are home owners who over fertilize there yards. For each homeowner who does that there are 20 homeowners who don't fertilize at all.