Eerily familiar

A polluted lake and a special offer for subscribers (9 minute read)

At the start of last year, I took on a third part-time job. I already had my contract work researching decision-making in biosecurity. This is what pays the bills and it’s been fascinating, although it’s finishing at the end of this year and there’s no more funding. But I’ve decided not to worry about that for now. Then there is writing this newsletter. In terms of the hours I put into it and how much I earn, it might not appear worthwhile, but I love doing it. More than that, it has transformed me as a writer. I feel as if it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.

The third job I took on is only a few hours a week. I don’t have much spare time, but I could see how much it would teach me and that it would bring me new opportunities. Never mind that there aren’t enough hours in the day. Twice a week, I search for all the science-related events that are on in Wellington – public lectures, seminars, field trips, conferences – anything that someone interested in science could attend. I also find online events which are in other parts of New Zealand (and the odd event which isn’t in New Zealand but is relevant or connected to New Zealand organisations). I collate these events and they go out in a twice-weekly newsletter called the Wellington Glean Report as well as on the Wellington Glean Report website. You can check it out and subscribe if you are interested, but that’s not why I’ve chosen to mention it.

As soon as I began, I found events I wanted to attend myself. Events that I learned about while doing this work led to articles about coral, pine trees, seaweed (one about the decline of seaweed around Wellington, one about restoration) and my series on disinformation. But one of the most exciting things I found was the Science Communicators Association of New Zealand, SCANZ for short. It’s a group for people who are passionate about making science accessible. Clearly, this was an organisation I had to join.

All of this is a roundabout way of telling you about something I discovered through SCANZ. When winter comes and people don’t feel much like going out, we do online events. The latest event was a discussion about a documentary called The Erie Situation. We were sent a link to watch the documentary, then discussed it at our meeting.

Note: if you think you’d like to see the documentary yourself, check at the end of the article for a special offer.

The Erie Situation is about Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes in North America. I know very little about the Great Lakes, apart from the fact that they are huge lakes. The only one I’ve seen is Lake Michigan, and that was a glimpse through the window of a plane as I was landing at Chicago Airport on my way to Canada. However, for those who aren’t familiar with them, these lakes are massive. Combined, the five lakes hold about 20% of the world’s fresh water.

Lake Erie is the second smallest by area, but the smallest by volume because it is shallow. It’s a young lake, formed during the retreat of glaciers at the end of the last ice age. However, it has aged prematurely as a result of human activities. When a lake is young, it has low nutrient level, clear water and not much plant and algal growth. As it ages, it accumulates nutrients, which encourage a proliferation of plants and algae, and reduce water clarity. Human activities which increase nutrient levels in the water, such as using fertiliser and keeping livestock nearby, speed up the aging process.

All I needed to do was look at the main web page for The Erie Situation to know what is going on. The water has a particular colour – a verdant lime green, intense and opaque. If I saw the colour in a clothing shop, I’d go straight to it, because I love lime green. My wardrobe is vibrant with lime green coats and dresses and even a lovely pair of shoes which are starting to deteriorate from age but are still stunning.

My favourite lime green dress is also piece of history, because I bought it at a famous op shop called “This is not a love shop” on Dominion Rd in Auckland back in 1993 (image credit: Melanie Newfield)

But in a lake, I don’t love the colour. That shade of green in the water can mean only one thing – an excessive growth of a type of bacteria known as cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, although they aren’t true algae. It was my interest in cyanobacteria which prompted me to contact Susie Wood, a scientist from the Cawthron Institute. And it was my discussion with Susie which opened my eyes to the state of New Zealand’s waterways.

The Erie Situation looks at the impact the condition of Lake Erie has on the people who live on its shores. It begins with a boat builder who now seldom ventures onto the lake because it’s made him sick. It looks at economic impacts, such as on the business of two women who clean fish caught by local fishermen. The dire state of the water means that their business is barely surviving. Then the documentary goes to the city of Toledo, which draws its water from Lake Erie. Since I’m not familiar with Toledo, I looked it up, and found that it’s about the same size as the whole of Wellington, that is, Wellington City, the Hutt Valley, Porirua and the Kāpiti Coast. In 2014, half a million Toledo residents found themselves unable to use the water from their taps because it had been contaminated by toxic cyanobacteria. For several days, they couldn’t drink their water, brush their teeth with it, cook with it or use it for washing. They were even told not to touch it. Toledo’s mayor explained that they were confident the problem wouldn’t be repeated only because the ratepayers had shelled out half a billion US dollars for a treatment system which would ensure that the toxic cyanobacteria wouldn’t reach the residents’ taps.

How did the lake reach such a dire state? The answer was depressingly familiar. In short – agriculture, specifically intensive animal agriculture. It was a combination of fertiliser, particularly phosphate fertiliser, and manure. Although the intensive feedlots used for cattle in the USA are different from the way we usually keep cattle here, we have the same basic problem. There are too many animals in the catchments, putting more nutrients into the water than the waterways can cope with.

There were three things that struck me as I watched the documentary.

The first was the similarity to New Zealand. We have many lakes which are suffering excessive growth of cyanobacteria. Mostly this is the result of agriculture here too, however lakes in urban areas, such as Rotoroa in Hamilton are also affected, so urban residents can’t avoid taking some responsibility.

The second was a cultural contrast. One farmer who featured prominently as part of the solution was an organic dairy farmer. His motivation was his Christian faith. In a more secular country like New Zealand, I doubt the film-makers would have given such prominence to religion, but in the USA it was important. On the other hand, I noticed that the documentary was populated almost entirely by white people. There wasn’t even the faintest hint of an indigenous perspective. In contrast to the emphasis on Christianity, I can’t imagine anyone making a documentary about waterways in New Zealand and not including Māori perspectives.

The third thing that struck me was a matter of values. At one point, someone commented that if the intensive livestock farmers who were polluting Lake Erie were held to higher environmental standards, some of them might go out of business. This is a familiar argument – that caring for the environment is too expensive. It’s just not profitable.

The makers of The Erie Situation didn’t argue directly with this point. But by the time people were arguing that farms couldn’t be profitable without destroying the lakes, it was already clear that the pollution from the farms was putting other people out of business. The ratepayers of Toledo had spent half a billion dollars, and I’m sure that put the city and its residents under huge financial pressure. The city is now implementing a programme to help residents who can’t afford to pay their water bills. The people who made their living from tourism and fishing in smaller towns on the lake’s shore are facing ruin too. It was clear in the film, even if not explicitly stated, that the profitability of the intensive farms was at the expense of the profitability of many other businesses.

The film was a powerful reminder that environmental protections are not simply for the sake of the environment. Don’t get me wrong – I’m passionate about protecting the environment for its own sake and for the survival of our unique species. But to those who think everything which matters has a dollar value, this film laid bare the reality. It’s not a matter of economic versus environmental interests. It’s about one type of economic interest over another. Around Lake Erie, the profits of intensive livestock farmers are favoured over the profits of businesses dependent on fishing and tourism, as well as any business in Toledo where the increased cost of water places them under pressure. Is it really good business if one business thrives only because it is destroying another?

Once again, I was reminded that when we buy food or fuel, or just about anything, the price we pay may not be the whole cost. Someone else may be paying as well, often someone who doesn’t have a choice. Perhaps that someone is on the far side of the world – out of sight and out of mind. Perhaps they aren’t even born yet. Because future generations will need to live with the waterways and climate that we leave for them. Right now, I don’t think they will be thanking us.

If you would like to watch The Erie Situation, it’s available to view online, but it isn’t free. I can get a group rate, so I’m offering the opportunity to my paying subscribers to see it (at my expense), and I should be able to offer the opportunity to a limited number of my free subscribers as well. You will be able to watch in your own time, but there will be a limited period in which it is available, perhaps about a week.

If you are interested, either let me know via the comments or reply to the email in the next week. I can offer the opportunity to all of my paying subscribers. Availability for free subscribers will depend on how many paying subscribers are interested and will be on a first come first served basis, so let me know as soon as possible.