WAUSAU, Wis. (Sept. 27) -- Waterways across the upper Midwest are increasingly plagued with ugly, smelly and potentially deadly blue-green algae, bloomed by drought and fertilizer runoffs from farm fields, that's killed dozens of dogs and sickened many people.

Aquatic biologists say it's a problem that falls somewhere between a human health concern and a nuisance, but will eventually lead to more human poisoning. State officials are telling people who live on algae-covered lakes to close their windows, stop taking walks along the picturesque shorelines and keep their dogs from drinking the rank water.

The shame here is that our farmers who are causing this could make changes to their processes that would yield real improvements here.. improvements that must be made or this tragic condition will extract a price that we are not going to like... including birth defects and potentially life shortening illness... even death...from the toxic reaction to these algaes.

The blue-green algae pictured here is proliferating throughout the North Central States...but is just as likely in other regions, especially as we see changes in our weather patterns. We need to appreciate that our actions will cause reactions. And we need to take steps to correct these issues... correct them through process change that eliminates the run off and prevents this from happening all together.