Action urged to protect Lake Superior
By: Art Chamberlain
Tags: Climate Action, Great Lakes, Water, Climate Change

IJC warns climate change is leading to algal blooms in largest, coldest and cleanest lake

Photo by NOAA on Unsplash

Climate change has resulted in dangerous algal blooms along the shore of Lake Superior due to warming temperatures and more severe rain storms, says a report by the International Joint Commission (IJC).

The binational organization that oversees water quality in the Great Lakes and other shared waterways says even the largest, coldest of the lakes is showing signs of suffering as temperatures warm and extreme precipitation becomes more common.

“Since Lake Superior is warming more rapidly than any of the other lakes, conditions may become more favorable for blooms in the future unless additional actions are taken,” says the IJC’s 2020 Triennial Assessment of Progress Report on Great Lakes Water Quality.

“The commission urges the parties (the governments) to also place a high priority on addressing cyanobacterial algal blooms in Lake Superior. That lake’s high resource values offer perhaps the best opportunity to showcase a government-led response to adapt to the impacts of changing climate on our shared Great Lakes. We may have only one chance to protect its high-quality condition.”

While algal blooms have been a major issue in the western basin of Lake Erie for several years, threatening water supplies and making swimming or boating dangerous, their occurrence in Lake Superior is a new and unstudied phenomenon.

The IJC called for more research and said the work it has done in Lake Erie should be helpful in understanding what can be done along the shores of Lake Superior.

The report said there were cyanobacterial algal blooms in the western end of Lake Superior near Duluth and Ashland in 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and east of Thunder Bay in 2019.

“The two largest blooms in western Lake Superior (2012 and 2018) followed unprecedented floods when higher stream flows were associated with nutrient delivery to the lake,” the report says. “The largest blooms also occurred in years with warmer water temperature. . . . Nutrient delivery may create conditions favorable for a bloom, but water temperatures play a role in triggering the events.”

The commission also urged Ottawa and Washington to work together on climate change programs to help the Great Lakes region adapt to the new reality, but the report noted that it made the same recommendation three years ago and has seen little action.

Jane Corwin, U.S. section chair IJC

Jane Corwin, U.S. section chair of the IJC, told a news conference on Dec. 10 that she is encouraged that the incoming Biden administration says “environmental work will be priority and that’s a good thing,” but she cautioned that governments in both countries are unable to work unilaterally.

Canadian section chair Pierre Beland said climate change is increasing precipitation that is causing higher water levels and stronger storms with high winds that are more destructive than in the past. “Climate change will change everything,” he told the news conference.

The triennial report said public response showed many people to do not think the governments and the IJC are doing enough to protect the lakes. It noted that its 2017 report found climate change was the 15th issue of concern, while it is №1 now.

“At every public engagement event, we received comments about the changes people are seeing in weather patterns, and the resulting impacts on shorelines, infrastructure and water quality,” the report says. “Communities are looking to their governments at all levels to provide the best available science, adaptation and resiliency strategies, and new watershed and land use planning models to respond effectively. Many commented that we need the political will to prioritize and respond to the many impacts of climate change.”