Officials Spend Day On Lake Erie Testing Water Quality

A day out on Lake Erie is always a day well spent, especially when it is a day spent learning about one of our most valuable natural resources.

More than 40 local elected officials were recently invited by The Ohio State University to participate in Sea Grant College. Councilwoman Jennifer Fenderbosch represented Avon Lake.

“It was a gorgeous day, and one of the most interesting educational experiences I’ve been on as an elected official,” Fenderbosch said.

The group convened at Stone Laboratory on Put-in-Bay, and then traveled by boat to Gibraltar Island.

“It started as a classroom event, with many different speakers. We had a historical tour of the island, then went out on the boats,” she explained. “They really put us to work. We were the crew. We lowered instruments over the side of the boats to measure the depth and clarity of the water. We used different types of filters and took samples of algae at the top and throughout the water, and at the bottom of the lake.”

Fenderbosch said that they studied the water samples under microscopes back at the lab.

“The samples were alive with an entire world of creatures,” she said. “We were really hoping not to find any harmful algae blooms.”

She said they detected two types of algae that produce toxins.

“The algae are fed by nitrogen and phosphorous from the over-fertilization of our lawns and from farm waste. The algae can eat up the oxygen and create a dead zone in the middle of the lake,” she explained. “Fertilizers should be used sparingly and according to the instructions. If you overwater, the fertilizer rolls off into the sewers and gets into the storm water and goes to the treatment plant, or directly into the creeks and then into the lake.”

Fenderbosch said they did not find any Asian carp, but the lab had one on display.

“It was a smaller Asian carp and it filled a three-foot ice chest,” she said. “The instructors said boaters should not empty their bilge when going from one water source to another. They also said fishermen should not empty bait buckets into Lake Erie, because minnows are brought here from southern states where there are Asian carp.

“Every state in the region has a real concern that we have good water quality,” she said. “Lake Erie, being the shallowest, has an abundance of fish that we share with the other Great Lakes states and with Canada.”

Fenderbosch said anyone can visit Stone Laboratory and Sea Grant College.

“You can even volunteer there,” she said. “It’s a fascinating place, and one that families can take their children to experience.”