Monday, June 13, 2016

Algae action, 2016

This morning I crossed the Ohio River a couple of times and noticed a greenish tint to it. I guess that means the blue-green algae are growing again, as they usually do at this time of year.

Ohio is taking steps to cut back on algae blooms in Lake Erie, although last summer's bloom on the Ohio was also noted in this Wall Street Journal article.

The thing about this that puzzles me is how last year's Ohio River bloom started. The first I heard of it was in the Steubenville area, and from there it spread downriver. Most news articles I read about algae blooms attribute them to nitrogen fertilizer, but I don't think there's a lot of agriculture in the Steubenville area. But I could be wrong about all this. If so, someone please correct me.