Toxic Algal Blooms can harm people and pets. They can ruin vacations and wreck recreation and tourist economies. They can happen anywhere. And they’re entirely preventable.
We were fortunate. Though he waded and drank some of the contaminated water, our dog Wooly escaped with a few days of severe vomiting and diarrhea. He’s now fully recovered. The poisoning could have caused irreversible liver damage and led to death.
Pollution like this has many causes. In our case, it was likely the huge, artificially green lawns – kept green by chemical pesticides and fertilizers – at too many nearby waterfront vacation estates. The unnatural, over fertilized grass stretches all the way to the water, where sensible buffers of shrubs, trees and wildflowers have been obliterated. Those natural pollution filters were gone.
Climate change – extreme heat, extreme drought, extreme wind, extreme rain – creates conditions that can allow lawn chemicals and other pollutants to fuel dangerous toxic algal blooms like the one that poisoned our dog. The solutions are available today:
- Stop expecting “perfect” lawns and accepting the harmful chemicals that come with them.
- Maintain healthy buffers of natural vegetation around our water.
- Enforce laws to protect vulnerable waterfronts and limit destructive shoreline over-development.
- Support clean energy and climate solutions that create jobs and protect water.
- Fix the Clean Water Act so that small streams and wetlands are once again protected.
Together, we can help make sure what I experienced never happens to you or anyone else. That’s our goal: clean water that is fishable, swimmable and drinkable for all people and communities (including our animal friends).