Green is the opposite of the color of money in Toledo these days.
Toledoans who are used to thinking of Lake Erie’s algae problem as something out of sight, far away in the open lake, have been watching a sickly green layer of the stuff atop the Maumee downtown for the last two weeks.
And despite the protests of business and civic leaders, who evidently want to whistle past the graveyard, that stinky, toxic goo certainly does carry a cost for the city — in dollars as well as natural and public health.
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Some business and public relations people have shrugged off the suggestion that the algae bloom parked in downtown Toledo during a September heat wave will have any lasting economic impact. Boaters still want to enjoy nice weather out on the water, home buyers still want to shop for real estate, and no one will remember this temporary inconvenience in a few months, they say.
That’s self-delusional nonsense. They cannot be that naive.
The algae that creeped up the Maumee River is not a temporary inconvenience. It is a dangerous sign of potentially even greater threats.
Metroparks Toledo Executive Director Dave Zenk has been one of the few local officials brave enough to identify the algae as the economic threat that it is.
Mr. Zenk spends his days touting the economic development benefits of creating and maintaining world-class parks and outdoor recreation. Toxic algae that fouls the water in the lake, in the river, and potentially in our faucets is a serious threat to that effort. We have to get a grip on the algae threat and solve the problem, he says.
Here is a simple test. Google Lake Erie and go to “images,” then Google Maumee River. If you do not think the many algae images hurt the city, regional tourism, and the Lake Erie fishing industry, we have some swamp land to sell you.
Imagine Amazon officials in Seattle thinking of tapping the Detroit/Toledo region as the much-sought-after second corporate headquarters. Could they really convince tech executives to uproot their families to northwest Ohio if the region is equated with toxic algae?
A riverfront algae bloom that prompts health warnings about direct human contact with the Maumee also depresses all local use of the river. Who wants to run his boat up and down green slime? Who wants to buy a boat?
Some elected leaders, such as Gov. John Kasich, still resist a federal impairment designation that could help clean up Lake Erie. They oppose it, in part, because they say that label will give the region “a black-eye.” We have already been punched.
First Published October 2, 2017, 11:30 a.m.
