Not Alarming Enough. . . . .

Bird of Prey

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Really. I know it's not alarming enough. And after all what is the solution? The good ol days of imperfect fruit, marginal wheat and bug-bearing vegetables? I was there, right on that beach at a point in time when it could restore even the most rusted soul . . . .

Horse dies, France faces reality of toxic beaches


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<CITE class=caption>AP – This Aug. 20, 2009 photo shows people walking on the beach of Hillion, near Saint Michel en Greve, Brittany, … </CITE>

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<!-- end .related-media --><CITE class=vcard>By ELAINE GANLEY, Associated Press Writer Elaine Ganley, Associated Press Writer </CITE>– <ABBR class=timedate title=2009-08-28T14:04:41-0700>Fri Aug 28, 5:04 pm ET</ABBR>
<!-- end .byline -->SAINT-MICHEL-EN-GREVE, France – It should have been a perfect day for Vincent Petit, finishing up an afternoon gallop on a wide expanse of beach along a pastel-colored bay. Instead, he and his mount were sucked into a hole of noxious black sludge.
The horse died within seconds, the rider lost consciousness and a dirty secret on the Brittany coast reverberated across France — decaying green algae was fouling some of its best beaches.
A report ordered by the government after the accident found concentrations of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted by the rotting algae were as high as 1,000 parts per million on the beach where the horse died — an amount that "can be fatal in several minutes."
There had been signs of a crisis for years in this idyllic corner of Brittany. But scaring away tourists was in no one's interest, including the farming industry — the region's economic backbone — whose nitrate-packed fertilizers power algae blooms.
So, while tongues wagged, folks whispered and acrimony grew, an official hush prevailed. It took the death of the horse to bring the problem into the open.
Decaying ulva algae threatens other beaches around France and the world, from the United States to China, experts say. Last year, the Chinese government brought in the army to remove the slimy growths so the Olympic sailing competition could be held.
In Brittany's Cote d'Armor region, conditions are perfect for its spread — sunlight, shallow waters and flat beaches. Chemical and natural fertilizers like pig excrement, loaded with nitrates and phosphorous, have saturated the land, spilling into rivers and the ocean, feeding the algae that then proliferate. . . . http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090828...RzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNob3JzZWRpZXNmcmE-
 

Gregg

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Farmers have long been among the worst polluters but usually get a (mostly) free ride from politicians.

Many golf courses and landscape companies (sometimes targeted as the bad guys) have switched to phosphorus-free fertilizers in an effort to reduce water pollution.
 

GeorgeK

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I'm still flabergasted that farmers haven't woken up to the fiscal realization that if there is agricultural run-off that means they are wasting money on too much fertilizer since ideally that fertilizer should have gone into the crops.