Summer has ended in Germany, and the cooler, wetter spring weather should hinder the growth of the blue-green algae that seems to have been such a problem in that country over the past few months, as has been highlighted on this thread in previous posts.
Given the apparent severity of 'blaualgen' water contamination over the last German summer, I think it could be wise for the management of this company to now pay some more attention to Germany. In China, back in 2007 a terrible outbreak of blue-green algae in one of China's largest lakes, Lake Taihu, prompted the Chinese government to finally get serious about tackling the issue of water pollution, and I wonder if the 'summer of algae' that has been just experienced in Germany could similarly lead to strong action by various levels of government in that country.
In earlier posts, I made some references to the substantial number of Google searches for the term 'blaualgen' originating in Germany over the past couple of months. The number of searches for that term last month was unprecedented, as is evident on a long-term chart showing the trend for 'balualgen' searches, generated on the Google Trends website:
Note that the chart above reflects the relative popularity of searches for the term 'blaualgen' in the German region compared to all other Google searches over that period (in this case, the chart goes back to 2004, the longest period for which data is provided.)
August of 2018 scored '100', meaning that the proportion of Google searches on 'blaualgen' was at a record high in this month, in comparison to all the other Google searches from Germany in August this year.
The month with the second largest number of searches for the same term was July of 2006. This month scored '33', which means that search traffic for the German term for blue-green algae was only around a third as high on Google in July of 2006, compared to the searches for the same term last month.
Clearly, blue-green algae water contamination is currently a hot-button issue in Germany. But is the record-breaking number of Google searches for blaualgen in Germany truly reflective of a widespread algae-contamination problem in lakes and rivers in Germany over the summer?. I have made an assumption that this was likely the case in previous posts, but I admit this is a bit speculative. It is possible, after all, that the media in Germany might have been beating up the issue, which could potentially have driven much of the search traffic for the term in question.
Fortunately, we are now better able to answer the above question, as earlier this week one German news article provided some concrete numbers on the scale of the algae contamination problem in Germany over the summer months (note this is via Google translate, and thus somewhat clunky):
...This summer, significantly more swimming bans and bathing warnings were pronounced in a month because of blue-green algae in the water than in the entire year 2017. Research by the German Federal Agency for Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) showed that 33 bathing places in the period from 23 July to 23 August 2018 were temporarily blocked due to blue-green toxins, including the Aasee in Münster and the Alster in Hamburg, where therefore even the swimming discipline of the Ironman had to be canceled. Warnings were issued for a further 92 swimming spots. By comparison, last year, according to the Federal Environment Agency, there were only three swimming bans for blue-green algae.
Thus, it appears from the above that over the summer, 33 swimming areas were temporarily blocked in Germany this year, compared to only 3 similar bans enacted in 2017. In short, it would seem that all those Germans who were searching for information on blue-green algae had good reason to do so.
The non-profit organisation that compiled those numbers, BUND, also called for more action to prevent future outbreaks of blue-green algae contamination in Germany:
"Blue-green algae are a clear sign that our waters are in an ecologically critical condition," said BUND waters expert Laura von Vittorelli. The organization therefore calls for the protection of rivers, lakes and also seas to drastically reduce the nutrient input, especially from industrial agriculture. For example, the Federal Government must, inter alia, prescribe mandatory water edge strips of at least ten meters in width, in which the application of fertilizers and pesticides is prohibited.
The report produced by this group also includes a comprehensive list of every German body of water that experienced problematic algal blooms over the summer months, and the group also released an interesting map to go with the report, showing the location of the lakes and rivers that were subject to swimming bans or warnings across Germany due to this summer's blue-green algae contamination crisis:
The detailed information that BUND has compiled here could be akin to a treasure-map for this company, and I reckon the Phoslock management should seriously consider tracking down and getting in touch with the relevant people in every single local council in Germany that was impacted by the blue-green algae water contamination crisis over the past few months, as is highlighted on the map above.
On that topic of Phoslock, I did notice a couple of days ago a mention of Phoslock (or to be more exact, the German trade-name for the same, Bentophos) in a German news report detailing discussions in a German local council concerning the best way to deal with a harmful algal-bloom in a local lake that became apparent over the summer. I've pasted the relevant extracts below; again, as it is translated via Google it lacks clarity in places:
...Denise Bodendorf from the Ottersberger Building Authority reported that the critical values were not enough for a bathing ban. However, due to the health hazards caused by the toxic blue-green algae spreading to the bacteria, they warn against bathing.
The topic is anything but new. However, after about ten years ago, when the community had twelve tons of the phosphate-binding agent put into the lake, and four years later refueled, it believed that the problem of increased summery algae production was under control, because the blue-green algae were the nutrient with phosphate binding to have distended. The values from last July were still optimistic. But as the heatwave grew, the blue-green algae grew and grew.
The problem raised by the CDU in the committee is not as easy to solve as the debate showed. High blue-green algae concentrations are also found in many other lakes. Summer heat promotes growth, but the cause is above all the nutrient overloading of the waters through entries from neighbouring agriculture and from weekend home areas.
...Does the phosphate binder really help sustainably? For this purpose, committee chairman Dirk Gieschen (CDU) wants to obtain experience from the comparable, also treated with Bentophos Weyher lake. Since the Otterstedter lake has no oxygen deficiency in the upper layers, there also help no turbulence of the water, it was said. The problems are more on the ground, and from there deployable large propellers are, according to Mayor Horst Hofmann and the experts of the sewage treatment plant still no success stories for lakes known.
My interpretation of the above is that, about ten years ago, Bentophos was applied to a lake in Lower Saxony called the Otterstedter See. There was a second application six years ago. However, the summer heatwave conditions this year provided an ideal environment for the growth of problematic cyanobacteria, and as such the application years back was no longer capable of offering protection to the lake.
This does provide some support for the notion that the global warming is probably going to translate to more demand for the Phoslock product. Certainly, in Germany many lakes that have been treated by this company in the past will be in need of another application in the months ahead following on from the summer heatwave.
And it looks like the Otterstedter See in particular is in dire need of a Bentophos top-up. Perhaps another one for the management to follow up?. The article mentions that the local council will be meeting in late September to discuss blue-green algae countermeasures, so it would seem that the time is ripe.
As a result of the transformation of this company over the past couple of years, Phoslock should now have more tools and expertise at their disposal to tackle this problem than had been available at the time of the last Bentophos application in that lake many years ago.
PET Price at posting:
40.5¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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