Sept. 22, 2017

Humid, 90+degrees, foul stench hangs in the air in all directions around our CAFOs. Water in Lake Erie’s Raisin and Maumee headwater tributaries up here in Michigan, ditches, creeks, streams, rivers, is green everywhere. Bright green, dark green, light green, blue green. Green scum, blue scum, green slime, green foam.

Above – Rice Lake Drain, tributary of Bear Creek, Raisin/Lake Erie, taken 9.22.17. Haley Road, Hudson Township, Lenawee County, Michigan. The traveling irrigator that Hoffland Dairy uses to pump liquid manure from their lagoons to these fields is on the top of the bank on the right side of the picture. This is the worst in memory; duckweed on the surface is losing the battle and it looks like blue-green soup underneath. On August 17, 2017, E. coli was 1300/100 mL, cattle DNA was present, orthophosphate test strip read 30 ppm, ammonia test strip read .25 ppm, cyanobacteria and microcystin were both present, all very alarming.

Above – Green, green everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Because it might be toxic. Tributary to Bean Creek/Tiffin/Maumee, taken 9.22.17. Ingall Highway facing southwest, Medina Township, Lenawee County, Michigan. Medina Dairy (2016 CNMP) manure application fields on either side. Green scum on top, darker green under the surface. Bottom picture is the same stream, looking upstream (northeast), so you can see the pea-green color under the scum without the sun’s reflection from the surface.