Blue-Green Algae Close 98 Quebec Lakes … More Closures as Cyanobacteria Problem Worsens … Ancient Bacteria Plagues Quebec … Town Councils Make Clouseau Look Like Maigret
Well, I made the last headline up, but the others pretty much tell the story. As it turns out, the on-again/off-again cyanobacteria infestation I posted about earlier in not only a Lac Mercier phenomenon. While we’ve suffered two more beach closures since my first post, other lakes have fared worse.
Blame is being placed everywhere dishwasher detergent; leaking septic systems; agriculture runoff; global warming. To me, lawns are the obvious culprit. Development has been very aggressive the last few years, with whole new subdivisions going in. The lawns that come with the houses are a double whammy; forest (which takes nitrogen and phosphorous from the soil) is uprooted, and sod is put down and way over-fertilized. Landscaping has been banned within 15 meters of shore, but continues unabated for the hundreds of other meters between shore and mountain ridge.
The Quebec Legislature wants to ban phosphates in detergent; I haven’t seen a proposal to ban lawn fertilizer.
[...] at the turnout and enthusiasm. In response to a screen shot of a Fieldmarking post describing beach closings, a person from the Water Office related that he learned of the closing of his favorite Lake Erie [...]
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