We can have both agriculture and clean water
Some policymakers turn a blind eye to the environment - they don't want to hear complaints about pollution tied to industry and, therefore, jobs. But they would have to be more than blind to ignore what happened in Lake Erie last month that impacted a major city in Ohio.
A vast, bright green bloom of toxic algae spread across the western end of Lake Erie last month, suspending public water service for about 500,000 people in and near Toledo, Ohio.
There is no mystery to the cause of the algae bloom, yet no consensus to attack it. The type of algae involved needs warm temperatures, phosphorous and nitrogen to grow. Warmth results from the lake's relatively shallow average depth of about 62 feet. Vast amounts of agricultural runoff along rivers that feed the lake provide the nutrients.
Algae blooms are a frequent occurrence, but winds often drive them toward the center of the lake, where they do not affect municipal water supply intakes.
Lake Erie is not unique. Algae blooms feast on excessive agricultural runoff around the world. The Gulf of Mexico experienced one last year that was as big as Connecticut. Another bloom killed scores of manatees in Florida last year, and still another sickened hundreds of marine mammals along California's central coast.
Yet public policy is slow to respond, and sometimes has been counterproductive. An initiative that just passed in Missouri, and which is gaining momentum in some other agricultural states, would prevent states from implementing the very measures that would diminish agricultural pollution. Called "right to farm," it also is a right to pollute.
States, including Virginia, should work for policies under which agriculture and clean water are not mutually exclusive ideas. Virginia is taking a leading roll in making sure large farming operations, especially those run by company, operate in a manner that reduces agricultural runoff of nutrients. The major push to clean up the Chesapeake Bay involves reducing nutrient runoff. Agriculture and clean water are both necessary - and our policies should work toward assuring both.