ILMA Compoundings – October 2019 - 33

As a proactive move, some end users are already requesting zero phosphorus content in the products they receive
from ILMA members. "We have had companies for the
past year and a half that will not allow phosphorus in their
plants," Fanning said. "A lot of time, those pushing the
corporate initiative don't even know why they are asking
for it."
In fact, removing phosphorus from lubricants, such as
metalworking fluids, hydraulic oils and motor oil, would
likely have little effect on algae blooms within the Great
Lakes, Fanning and Burke explained.

The Concern

Discussions over phosphorus and algae aren't new, but the
understanding of microcystins, the toxins resulting from the
blue-green algae, has grown. "It has been going on since we
started farming in the Great Lakes region," Burke said.
However, it wasn't possible to measure the microcystin
levels 20 years ago. In the summer of 2014, awareness
increased when the city of Toledo, Ohio, detected toxin
levels above the safe level for drinking water and had to shut
down its drinking water system for 500,000 people for three
days, Burke said. "That was the wake-up call, and it was a
dramatic wake-up call," he added.
The algae issue does not affect all of the Great Lakes; it is
primarily targeted at the western basin of Lake Erie. Lake
Erie provides drinking water for 11 million people in the
U.S. and Canada, so increased levels of microcystins are a
health concern. Microcystins can even persist after boiling,
and there is no way to remove the toxin.

"The western basin of Lake Erie is the warmest and
shallowest portion of the Great Lakes, which provides a
good breeding ground for algae," Burke said. In addition,
the Maumee River feeds into that area. "The Maumee River
goes all the way into Indiana and covers a significant farming
area. The algae issue is exasperated or antagonized by the
amount of dissolved reactive phosphorus," Burke said.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article on the algae blooms,
Laura Johnson, director of the National Center for Water
Quality Research at Heidelberg University, said that in the
Maumee River, the vast majority of phosphorus comes from
runoff from farm fields. She said that only about 9% of
phosphorus comes from water-treatment plants.
One challenge is that farmers can't control the amount
of phosphorus leaving their property. "When rain falls, it
pushes dissolved reactive phosphorus into the rivers and
lakes. Now that you have the phosphorus and sunlight, you
have all of the perfect ingredients to grow algae," Burke said,
adding that because each farm is a separate discharge source
as well as a non-point source, "It is considered runoff."
Burke added that it would be difficult to regulate 10,000
individual farms. "My concern is you'll regulate what is easy
- industry - rather than what is hard," he said, adding
that regulating industry is likely to be ineffective. "Industry is a relatively small player, but we can be single-point
sources. We go into pipes, so we are easily regulated."
"Industry needs to help regulators understand that total
phosphorus should not be regulated and that dissolved
reactive phosphorus, which is also called DRP, should be the
target of regulation," Burke said.

"Industry needs to help regulators understand that total
phosphorus should not be regulated and that dissolved
reactive phosphorus, which is also called DRP, should be
the target of regulation."
John Burke, global director of engineering services,
Houghton International Inc.

ILMA Compoundings – October 2019

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