Raccoon River Pollution Threatens Drinking Water With Nitrates and Toxic Algae

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:11:56 +0000

A national environmental organization labeled the Raccoon River one of the country’s most endangered because of toxic algae and nitrates. Des Moines Water Works called it a “catastrophe,” as the Raccoon is the major source for drinking water for a half-million Iowans.

Des Moines Water Works, after dumping as much as $250,000 a year into buying water from the increasingly polluted Saylorville Lake, is now considering a $50 million treatment plant expansion. But who will pay for it?

The report that labeled the Raccoon River endangered blamed the problem on the farm chemicals and livestock manure that are running from those emerald fields into our increasingly sickly green rivers and streams. However a lawsuit to share the cost with upstream polluters failed along with a separate case against the state of Iowa alleging the state was violating the public trust by failing to protect the Raccoon River from pollution.

Read More https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/07/12/green-water-is-costing-iowans-millions-of-greenbacks/

Study Finds Strategic Weed Harvesting Can Remove Phosphorus and Support Clear Lake Management

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 21:18:37 +0000

Intensive in-lake and watershed management caused Kohlman Lake, the northernmost lake in the Phalen Chain of Lakes in Minnesota, to go from a relatively turbid to a clear water state. Aquatic plants responded to the clean waters by growing up to the surface. The change in lake state and a comprehensive water quality monitoring dataset gave researchers an excellent opportunity to develop and assess a strategic aquatic plant harvesting approach to a balanced lake management plan that centers on navigation, recreation, aesthetics, water quality and ecological function.

Aquatic plants provide several ecosystem services such as habitat, food, cover and shading, temperature moderation, and nutrient uptake and sequestration. The overall approach to mechanical weed harvesting was conservative and the plant mass removed from the lake was about 14% of the peak mass that would be present without harvesting.

Harvesting removed 24% of the total phosphorus (TP) captured by aquatic plants and this accounted for 4% of the TP load derived from external sources. In addition, the cost of TP removal by aquatic plant harvesting is quite economical when compared to phosphorus management practices that take place in upland watershed areas. Data from this study suggest that harvesting certainly presents cost-effective opportunities for TP removal and has the potential to factor into dynamic and creative watershed management approaches.

Reprinted with permission from NALMS. The original article published in Lakeline, Volume 40, No. 4 Winter 2020.

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watershed management – Aquarius-Systems

Raccoon River Pollution Threatens Drinking Water With Nitrates and Toxic Algae

Study Finds Strategic Weed Harvesting Can Remove Phosphorus and Support Clear Lake Management