Tuesday, July 19, 2005

The Water tastes like dirt and Dead Zones in Lake Erie

Last week I noticed the water tasting funny. I heard on the news it was because of an algae bloom and the chemicals used to treat it left the after taste. Now supposedly some of us can't taste this but who could not notice their water tastes like dirt? Maybe I'm more sensitive to it but I have gone as far as to buy ice because I can taste it. (As well as getting people in my house to be the first ones to try the water to see if it still tastes funny - hehehe)

Today's Blade confirms it's not over yet, but should be soon. Supposedly it's just us on the West side who are still experiencing it. I dont know, I haven't gotten anyone else to try it yet today. They are starting to rebel at being used as water tasters.....

Now on to the more disturbing news, another dead zone has been found in Lake Erie in nearby Sandusky. It's kind of interesting because just yesterday I was searching fish for Aubrey because she was convinced she had seen a dead shark at Maumee Bay State Park on Sunday. We discovered what she saw was a sturgeon, and read that the return of the sturgeon was felt as proof the lake was getting healthier. Perhaps not with the Dead Zones.

Rather than get all scientific on you a Dead Zone is basically a zone in the lake where the oxygen drops or becomes non-existant. They don't know what causes it for certain. It typically happens in late summer in the basin area near Cleveland.

From the article linked in the title:

In a dead zone, there is so little oxygen along the lake bottom that fish cannot survive. Scientists have monitored the phenomenon in Lake Erie's central basin from Ashtabula to Cleveland for years, but 70 miles west, in the Sandusky sub-basin, the problem has worsened to the point that there is no oxygen at all.

"Anything lower than four parts of oxygen per thousand is problematic," said Stuart Ludsin, lead scientist on the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory's Lake Erie project. "Around Sandusky, it's between zero and one parts per thousand in several spots."

Hopefully the multimillion dollar research project by US and Canada will reveal some answers.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

unfortunately the dirt water isn't just on the west side. It's downtown too. Living on the west side, and working downtown, I haven't drank much water in the last week...

Unknown said...

It was actually a little better today Josh, I had to try it because I could find no vitims, lol

Less "dirt" more "water" taste

:-)

Anonymous said...

Dead zones and dirt? Yech!!! You should move to Nebraska. Here the water only tastes like fertilizer and cow manure. Oh don't worry, you get used to it. ;-)

Unknown said...

Yes the sweet (cough) smell of manure, we have that here too

:-)

Anonymous said...

yes, the water has been tasting better lately. Thank goodness!!!