U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) said Friday it’s time to reframe western Lake Erie algae as a challenge to show the world how this part of North America can rally around a serious environmental issue and make a historic comeback.
“If we figure out this watershed, folks, we can become famous,” Miss Kaptur, the keynote speaker at the University of Toledo College of Law’s 15th annual Great Lakes Water Conference, told a standing-room-only crowd of 325 attendees. “At the same time we have a crisis, we have an opportunity.”
Since at least 2011, when western Lake Erie experienced its largest recorded algal bloom, scientists, activists, and policymakers have stated that the noxious, poison-laced scum that has reappeared almost annually since 1995 has the potential to galvanize this region much as the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire became a rallying point for the federal Clean Water Act of 1972, a landmark environmental law.
Miss Kaptur went a step further and suggested that with a proper response, the Toledo water crisis of 2014 could someday be seen as a turning point for battling algae issues worldwide in the same way the DDT ban served as a turning point that saved the bald eagle.
“This time it’s a little more complicated because it isn’t just one chemical. It’s a way of living,” she said.
Miss Kaptur, a former urban planner, said there’s no mistaking agriculture’s impact on the Maumee River watershed’s 2 million people spread across Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.
“We’re like Little Switzerland,” she said of the growing dairy industry.
Miss Kaptur said she supports efforts by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to do more flyovers and better pinpoint where algae-growing phosphorus is coming from.
She said she’s impressed by how groups such as the Rotary Club of Toledo have taken the conversation to new audiences and said it’s up to the region now to continue the momentum around science-based solutions.
“The challenges facing our bountiful region are deep,” she said. “Mother Nature does not lie, and science does not lie.”
While stating one minute that “every crisis, every challenge also has incredible opportunity,” Miss Kaptur also noted political obstacles in Congress that many people don’t see because of population — and power — shifts.
She said seven Texas congressmen now chair U.S. House committees.
“It’s very hard for the Great Lakes region to be seen and to be heard,” she said.
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published November 7, 2015, 5:00 a.m.