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News
By Vicki Browne
Iron County Lakes & Streams Partnership
Dan Egan’s latest book, entitled ‘The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance,’ is an incredible and frightening study of phosphorus’ essential role in the circle of life.
Egan, a daily reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, has written two books. The first, ‘The Death and Life of the Great Lakes,’ is an engaging story about the lakes with detailed examinations of the perils they face.
‘The Devil’s Element’ calls our attention to one, non-renewable resource that is posing a threat because of its scarcity and its abundance. The amount of Earth’s phosphorus is finite, and Egan’s book demonstrates that we are mining our way through its fossilized reserves while simultaneously allowing it to run off farm fields, almost unchecked, into waterways.
To quote Egan: ‘Many in the general public might not yet be aware of the phosphorus troubles the world is headed toward because of the element’s dual roles as a dangerously potent toxic algae booster and as an essential — an increasingly scarce — crop nutrient.’
Part one takes the reader on a globe-trotting tour of historically significant phosphorus reserves. We harvest bones from the Battle of Waterloo and bird guano (aka bird poop) on an island off Pisco, Peru. Phosphorus is mined from Florida’s Bone Valley and Banaba Island northeast of Australia. As we move into the 21st century, the last large cache is in the Western Sahara where the King of Monaco sits on it like Midas.
Phosphorus is actually more precious than gold since you can’t sprinkle gold on crops to grow food.
With the last major reserve of phosphorus in the hands of one man while the world’s population and need for food continue to grow, the stage is set for strife and conflict.
Part 2 follows phosphorus fertilizers and liquefied cow manure as it over saturates farm fields and flows into lakes and streams. When the land cannot absorb it and the plants don’t have enough time to uptake it, the phosphorus ends up in the waterways where it fertilizes aquatic plants, invasive species and toxic bacteria.
Egan’s focus is on the toxic cyanobacteria which he describes in various places as ‘scum like green oil paint’ and ‘guacamole’.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 made industry clean up the tide of phosphorus-rich detergent bubbles appearing like icebergs on lakes in the 1950s, but agriculture was not included in the restrictions. Without some measures to keep the phosphorus where it belongs, the U.S. will continue to see over $4 billion in damage to fisheries, recreation and drinking water each year.
‘Unless something is done, we shall find ourselves in the middle of an Algal Bowl, with effects on water comparable to those on land during the great American Dust Bowl of the 1930s,’ according to ecologist John Vallentyne, who Egan cited in his book.
The potency of phosphorus doesn’t fade when it washes into the water. Places like Lake Erie, Lake Okeechobee in Florida, and nearby Green Bay have ended up with bumper crops of blue green algae. Egan points out that these toxic blooms can kill pets, humans — even elephants in Botswana.
Egan does not propose any solutions, nor did he promise to. He does conclude that we must ‘restore the virtuous phosphorus circle of life that we’ve broken.’
‘The Devil’s Element’ is a quick read at only 187 pages. As always, knowing is the first step. Awareness can make us grateful for the current health of our Iron County lakes — but also resolved to protect them.