Lake Erie algae a concern

by Tom Morrison

The Windsor Essex County Environmental Committee has unveiled a new public service announcement regarding an algae issue in Lake Erie, but some city councillors are worried it doesn’t address a cause or solution to the problem.

At the Nov. 28 Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee meeting Matthew Child of WECEC presented a video about the buildup of green and blue algae and phosphates in Lake Erie and the effects it has had on wildlife and people in the area.

One person in the video talked about seeing fish trying to jump out of the water “because they couldn’t breathe.”

The video, co-produced by the Essex Region Conservation Authority, is expected to be presented before city council. Hilary Payne, Ward 9 councillor and WECEC member, said it doesn’t give the real source of the phosphate increase.

“We can keep on defining the problem forever, but it’s not doing any good to the environment,” Payne said. “We seem to be kind of dancing around it. We don’t seem to specify where it’s coming from and consequently, we’re not doing anything.”

Child said the main cause of this problem is nutrients from residential, agricultural and other land uses.

“There’s been adoption of practices that in hindsight worsened the export of nutrients to the Great Lakes,” said Child, who is also the director of watershed restoration for ERCA. “That has certainly been part of the problem and part of the solution is adjusting agricultural practices.”

ERCA water quality specialist Chitra Gowda said climate change was also a contributing factor and Windsor’s recent Climate Change Adaptation Plan looks at solutions to this issue.

“It’s the shorter, more intense rainfall and higher temperatures that we’re seeing in recent years,” Gowda said.

After Payne repeatedly said the video doesn’t say who is responsible and doesn’t give a solution, Child said what is being done to reduce the nutrient threat is probably not sufficient.

Ward 6 Coun. Jo-Anne Gignac said the video was “tame” and should have tried to get more immediate action from higher levels of government, especially after the contamination of the water supply in Walkerton, Ont. that killed seven people in 2000.

“For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the reaction isn’t swifter and more stringent because the writing’s on the wall,” said Gignac. “I would have liked to have seen it be a lot more biting and say, ‘You know what, we’ve got to hold the government … to the fire and get some swift action.’”