Page 30 - bon-dia-aruba-20200430

a30 feature
Thursday 30 april 2020

Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes

Gabriel Filippelli IUPUI cause health problems.
(The Conversation is an in- So despite a half-century
dependent and nonprofit of advances, in many ways
source of news, analysis Great Lakes water qual-
and commentary from ac- ity is back to where it was
ademic experts.) in 1970, but with the add-
Gabriel Filippelli, IUPUI and ed influence of a rapidly
Joseph D. Ortiz, Kent State changing climate.
University Filtering runoff
(THE CONVERSATION) This How can the region
story is part of the Pulitzer change course and build
Center's nationwide Con- resilience into Great Lakes
nected Coastlines report- coastal communities?
ing initiative. For more infor- Thanks to a number of re-
mation, go to https://pulit- cent studies, including an
zercenter.org/connected- intensive modeling analysis
coastlines-initiative. of future climate change
"Do Not Drink/Do Not Boil" is in Indiana, which serves
not what anyone wants to as a proxy for most of the
hear about their city's tap region, we have a pretty
water. But the combined good picture of what the
effects of climate change future could look like.
and degraded water qual- As one might guess, warm-
ity could make such warn- People are silhouetted as they look out over Lake Ontario in Toronto, Monday, April 27, 2020. ing will continue. Summer-
ings more frequent across Associated Press. time water temperatures
the Great Lakes region. able to these kinds of man- slowly and at great cost. due to climate change. are projected to rise by
A preview occurred on made threats. The resulting cuts in nutri- Another clear impact of cli- about another 5 degrees
July 31, 2014, when a nas- As Midwesterners working ent and wastewater pollu- mate change is a general Fahrenheit by midcentury,
ty green slime – properly in the fields of urban envi- tion have brought a quick warming of all five Great even if nations significantly
known as a harmful algal ronmental health and cli- decline in HABs – especially Lakes, particularly in the reduce their greenhouse
bloom, or HAB – developed mate and environmental in Lake Erie, the Great Lake springtime. The tempera- gas emissions. This will cause
in the western basin of Lake science, we believe more with the most densely pop- ture increase is modest and further declines in water
Erie. Before long it had crises like Toledo's could lie ulated shoreline. But new varies from year to year quality and negatively im-
overwhelmed the Toledo ahead if the region doesn't problems have emerged, and place to place, but is pact coastal ecosystems.
Water Intake Crib, which address looming threats to due partly to shortcomings consistent overall with re- The analysis also projects
provides drinking water to drinking water quality. in those laws and agree- cords of warming through- an increase in extreme pre-
nearly 500,000 people in Vast and abused ments, combined with the out the region. cipitation and runoff, par-
and around the city. The Great Lakes together growing effects of climate More polluted runoff ticularly in the winterand
Tests revealed that the al- hold 20% of the world's change. Some of these climate-re- spring. These shifts will likely
gae was producing micro- surface freshwater – more Warmer and wetter lated changes have con- bring still more nutrient run-
cystin, a sometimes deadly than enough to provide Climate change is pro- verged with more direct off, sediment contaminants
liver toxin and suspected drinking water to over 48 foundly altering many fac- human impacts to influ- and sewage overflows into
carcinogen. Unlike some million people from Duluth tors that affect life in the ence water quality in the coastal zones, even if sur-
other toxins, microcystin to Chicago, Detroit, Cleve- Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes. rounding states hold the
can't be rendered harm- land and Toronto. But hu- most immediate impacts Since the mid-1990s, cli- actual quantities of these
less by boiling. So the city man impacts have severely of recent climate change mate-driven increases in nutrients steady. More con-
issued a "Do Not Drink/Do harmed this precious and have been on precipita- precipitation have car- taminants, coupled with
Not Boil" order that set off a vital resource. tion, lake levels and water ried growing quantities of higher temperatures, can
three-day crisis. In 1970, after a century of temperatures. nutrient runoff into Lake trigger algal blooms that
Local stores soon ran out of urbanization and industri- Annual precipitation in the Erie. This rising load has trig- threaten water supplies.
bottled water. Ohio's gov- alization around the Great region has increased by gered increasingly severe But recent success stories
ernor declared a state of Lakes, water quality was about 5 inches over the algal blooms, comparable point to strategies for tack-
emergency, and the Na- severely degraded. Facto- past century. Changes in in some ways to the events ling these problems, at least
tional Guard was called ries were allowed to dump the past five years alone – of the 1970s. Toledo's 2014 at the local and regional
in to provide safe drinking waste into waterways rath- the hottest five years in re- crisis was not an anomaly. levels.
water until the system could er than treating it. Inade- corded history – have been These blooms can make A number of large infra-
be flushed and treatment quate sewer systems often particularly dramatic, with lake water smell and taste structure projects are cur-
facilities brought back on sent raw sewage into rivers a series of extreme rainfall bad, and sometimes make rently underway to improve
line. and lakes, fouling the water events bringing extremely it dangerous to drink. They stormwater management
The culprit was a combina- and causing algal blooms. high and rapidly varying also have long-term im- and municipal sewer sys-
tion of high nutrient pollu- Problems like these helped water levels to the Great pacts on the lakes' eco- tems, so that they can cap-
tion – nitrogen and phos- spur two major steps in Lakes. systems. They deplete oxy- ture and process sewage
phorus, which stimulate 1972: passage of the U.S. Record high precipitation gen, killing fish and spur- and associated nutrients
the growth of algae – from Clean Water Act, and in 2019 caused flooding, ring chemical processes before they are transported
sewage, agriculture and adoption of the Great property damage and that prime the waters of to the Great Lakes. These
suburban runoff, and high Lakes Water Quality Agree- beachfront losses in a num- Lake Erie for larger future initiatives will help control
water temperatures linked ment between the United ber of coastal communi- blooms. Low-oxygen wa- flooding and increase the
to climate change. This States and Canada. Since ties. Precipitation in 2020 ter is more corrosive and supply of "gray water," or
event showed that even then, many industries have is projected to be equally can damage water pipes, used water from bathroom
in regions with resources been cleaned up or shut high, if not higher. Some of causing poor taste or foul sinks, washing machines,
as vast as the Great Lakes, down. Sewer systems are this is due to natural vari- odors, and helps release tubs and showers, for uses
water supplies are vulner- being redesigned, albeit ability, but certainly some is trace metals that may also such as landscaping.q