Trump voters get a NEW #MAGA REWARD: toxic algae in their drinking water! #IDon'tFeelSoGood

[Miles Archer]

These Programs Keep Toxic Algae Out of Drinking Water—And Trump Wants to Gut Them
Blooms from fertilizer runoff cost the US economy about $2 billion a year.

TOM PHILPOTTMAR. 9, 2017 6:00 AM



http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/trumps-budget-cuts-foul-efforts-save-lake-erie-farms

On a weekend morning in summer 2014, the 400,000 residents of Toledo, Ohio, woke up to a stark warning: Don't drink the tap water, and don't wash dishes or bathe kids in it. The problem: An enormous algae bloom had floated over the city's municipal water intake in Lake Erie, fouling the city's water with a toxin that "causes cells to shrink, which causes blood to spill into the liver and can quickly lead to death," according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Lake Erie's algae bloom was hardly a natural phenomenon—it was driven by the millions of acres of farmland that drain fertilizer-laced runoff into the lake, which in turn feed the annual poison-spewing blooms, which in turn force Toledo and other cities clustered around Lake Erie to spend millions per year in filtration efforts—which, as happened in 2014, sometimes fail.

Toxic algae blooms are a nationwide problem. In August 2016, no fewer than 19 states had to issue public health advisories because of them, according to the EPA. Annually, the damage they cause—everything from increased filtration costs to declines in fish populations—costs the US economy about $2 billion. Lake Erie, which provides water to 11 million people, is a particularly stark example of their ravages.

Marine scientist Jeff Reutter was at the center of a fierce effort by local, state, and federal officials to stem the 2014 crisis, which ended after three days without any illnesses. And now Reutter, then the director of Ohio Sea Grant, part of a network of programs in coastal and Great Lakes states, run by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is worried that the constellation of federal projects that protect people in places like Toledo from toxic algae blooms will be dismantled by coming federal budget cuts signaled by President Trump—even as annual agriculture-driven algal blooms continue to threaten the cities clustered around Lake Erie.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2017/03/trumps-budget-cuts-foul-efforts-save-lake-erie-farms

[milestogo]

1. What a hideous profile.

[Initech]

3. That's what "garbage in, garbage out" gets you.

He looks so bloated in every picture, and at that age that can't be a good thing.

[Initech]

2. Yay, poison! Because that's what I want in my drinking water!

[enough]

4. Evil. NT

[world wide wally]

5. I'm telling you....

I don't think human sacrifices to Trump, McConnell, and Ryan (the new Triumvirate) are far off.

[samnsara]

6. gawd that mans ugly..inside AND out!

[Mendocino]

7. Ounce of prevention/pound of cure

I live in NW Ohio and suffered through this debacle. It will soon be repeated countrywide if adequate protections are not funded. The costs after the fact will vastly supersede the costs of prevention. I grow so weary of the RW kicking the can just line their pockets.