Harmful Algal Blooms Archives - Investigate MidwestInvestigate Midwest

algae

Beach closures highlight algae, bacteria threats in Yahara lakes and across Wisconsin

By By Kate Golden/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism | April 29, 2014

After one of Madison’s longest, coldest winters ever, swimming season is almost here — along with toxic algal blooms, bacteria, invasive milfoil and other pestilences of the lakes. The Yahara lakes — Mendota, Monona, Wingra, Waubesa and Kegonsa — are no clearer than they were 30 years ago, despite intensive efforts to improve them. During that time, lake scientists said, the increased heavy rainfalls that are part of climate change most likely offset gains from better land use practices, by washing giant volumes of pollution into the lakes.

Environment

Wetlands and the Water Works: Flowing off the farm and into the water supply

By Lauren Mills/ IowaWatch.org | November 1, 2012

Iowa is home to two rivers, the Cedar and Iowa rivers, voted as some of America’s most endangered rivers by the American Rivers organization. Over 180,000 people in the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City area depend upon the Cedar and Iowa rivers for drinking water, according to the organization’s Most Endangered Rivers publication.

Environment

Sending it on downriver: Iowan nutrients in the deadzone

By Lauren Mills/ IowaWatch.org | November 1, 2012

The dead zone may seem like an abstract concept in Iowa, a state more than 800 miles to the north of the Gulf, but for fishermen in Louisiana the destruction is very real. Harmful algal blooms — the explosion of algae due to nitrogen and other pollutants — occur every year all along the coast of the United States; and they come with a price.