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Issue 1207 April 10, 2011
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Invasive quagga mussels are abundant in the bay and quickly colonized an instrument mooring deployed from April-September 2010 on the bottom of the inner bay (lower right photo). International Association for Great Lakes Research.

MUSSELS = MUCK: Invasive Species Grow Algae; Scientists Mull Action

Cleaning the Water and Shoreline of Saginaw Bay Poses Mindboggling Task

August 20, 2014       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another of a continuing series of articles on Saginaw Bay and its effect on our quality of life. Here we highlight the impact of numerous stressors on the bay from human activities and other factors. "These stressors include toxic contaminants, nutrients, sediments, overfishing, exotic species, and declining water levels. The combined effect of these stressors has compromised the health of Saginaw Bay and resulted in the loss of many ecosystem features that people value." --NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.)

For 40 years scientists have known that zebra mussels create conditions that foul the waters of Saginaw Bay.

Like the old saying about the weather, everybody complains about it but nobody does anything about it.

The invasive species is believed to invaded the Great Lakes by hitching rides in the ballast of foreign ships, freed when the holds were flushed.

Zebra and quagga mussels quickly established themselves, along with hundreds of other invasive creatures and plants like the odious phragmites -- tall stalks also known as the common reed that now dominate shoreline areas, swamps and ditches.

The zebra mussels basically clean the water of micro-organisms, a result that on its face would seem to be beneficial. However, by allowing sunlight to penetrate and spur the growth of algae, the mussels actually result in water increasingly fouled by algae.

Bay County officials have grappled with the resulting obnoxious muck formed by the algae and accelerated by a host of organic drivers -- sewage, animal waste, fertilizer, phosphorous-laden inputs from household laundries, industrial waste and other materials as shown in the above chart.

Because of the continually degrading quality of Saginaw Bay water and need for heavier chemical treatment of the source four miles off Linwood, Bay County has been forced to build a new $64 million membrane water treatment plant. A new source has been secured from the Saginaw-Midland Water System that draws from Lake Huron off Whitestone Point near AuGres. Higher water rates for local residents are only part of the ultimate cost of problems in the bay.

A Wayne State University water quality specialist has recently launched another study aiming to find a solution. "Where people meet the muck -- muck in the Saginaw Bay," is the title of a two-year $247,794 study, underway with Donna Kashian, Wayne State University, principal investigator.

However, a review of the situation reveals a monumental task with so many knotty facets that may defy efforts of all but perhaps the Biblical prophet Methuselah to solve it over the life span of his legendary 969 years.

The EPA reports that at least 25 non-native species of fish have entered the Great Lakes since the 1800s, including round goby, sea lamprey, Eurasian ruffe, alewife and others.

"These fish have had significant impacts on the Great Lakes food web by competing with native fish for food and habitat," states a 2013 EPA report. "Invasive animals have also been responsible for increased degradation of coastal wetlands; further degrading conditions are resulting in loss of plant cover and diversity."

Non-native mussels and mollusks have also caused turmoil in the food chain. Zebra mussels inadvertently introduced to Lake St. Clair quickly spread throughout the Great Lakes and into many inland lakes, rivers, and canals. Since then, they have caused severe problems at power plants and municipal water supplies, clogging intake screens, pipes, and cooling systems. They have also nearly eliminated the native clam population in the ecosystem.

A mind-boggling explanation of the ill effects of zebra mussels on Saginaw Bay is offered by five writers from the University of Michigan Department of Biology:

"Zebra mussels aid growth of harmful blue-green algae by rejecting them as food, thus giving them a competitive advantage over less abundant algae that are eaten by the mussels. The mussels may also release nutrients that encourage algae growth, especially blue-green algae.

"This in addition to a sudden change from a free-floating to a bottom-dominated food base may force scientists and decision-makers to reassess current models used to guide the management of water quality, fisheries and toxic contaminants throughout the Great Lakes region."

Writing nearly 20 years ago in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, the U-M biologists reported results of measurements of bay water on numerous occasions from 1974 through 1993.

Their article explained: "Saginaw Bay was studied because it serves as a ready-made laboratory large enough to reflect changes expected for a whole lake, but small enough to allow scientists to sample everything up and down the ecosystem food chain.

"Also, there was already much information available on the bay--a water body with a rich fishery made possible by the high biological production of its microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton."

"Zebra mussels were found capable of filtering Saginaw Bay's entire water volume in one to four days. While this high filtering rate fuels explosive zebra mussel growth, it also means that other parts of the food chain are deprived of needed energy and nutrients.

"Prior to the zebra mussel's arrival, much of this energy and nutrients supported microscopic animals (zooplankton) that in turn served as a food base for young (larval) fish. The spread and growth of zebra mussels have decimated this important free-floating part of the food chain, raising concerns that all of the bay's fish stocks may suffer.

Mussels may also release nutrients that encourage algae growth, especially blue-green algae, according to the scientists. Certain forms of a blue-green algae named Microcystis are toxic to fish and cause gastro-intestinal distress in humans.

Blooms of Microcystis have recently been noted in Saginaw Bay and in western Lake Erie, where studies are underway. With increased water clarity due to the mussel's continued filtering of the bay's water, thick mats of thread-like algae now are abundant near and on some water intakes. These algae have the capability of producing off-flavor compounds that can affect taste and odor of municipal water supplies.

In the inner portion of Saginaw Bay, water clarity improved in midsummer of 1991 and 1993; but in 1992, 1994, and 1995 there were marked decreases in water clarity owing to massive blooms of Microcystis, a potentially toxic colonial cyanobacterium, or blue-green alga, wrote Henry Vanderploeg of NOAA/Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

The scientists leave us with a mystifying conclusion about the effects of the mussels without suggesting possible actions that could correct the muck situation:

"The zebra mussel has transformed the Saginaw Bay ecosystem from one that scientists understood fairly well, to a new system with a large number of unknowns. Additional work will be needed to document and fully understand how this new system behaves."

Although a certain amount of change has and will continue to occur in the structure and function of Great Lakes ecological systems, NOAA and university scientists emphasized that the zebra-mussel-induced changes they have seen in Saginaw Bay's ecology are more extreme because it is shallow and has suitable substrate for the mussels.

"In the long run, more ecological instability can be expected wherever zebra mussels spread, making the ecosystem more difficult to predict and, therefore, more difficult to manage and protect vital resources.

In addition to the yet-unknown economic impacts on Great Lakes fisheries, costs to reverse or prevent zebra mussel fouling in water plants and other industrial water works alone are estimated to mount to billions of dollars in the future.

My only comment: YIKES!!! Where do we turn next??? ###

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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