Arendsee: High phosphate content threatens a warm summer!

Arendsee: High phosphate content threatens a warm summer!

At Lake Arendsee, where bright bathing weather with temperatures over 30 degrees is promised in the coming days, things look a little bleaker. Concern is growing about the high phosphate content in the water, as this could once again lead to dangerous situations, with famous consequences such as blue-green algae and massive fish deaths looming. Last year, exactly this problem caused massive fish deaths at similar temperatures. Loud az online affected citizens and professionals are under pressure to find solutions to this serious situation.

The Arendsee is not only a popular excursion destination, but also a protected area in accordance with the EU's Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive (FFH). It takes up almost 80 percent of the landscape protection area. But the state of the water is extremely urgent: calculations show that the phosphorus concentration is four to five times higher than the natural state. This over-fertilization leads to algae blooms and a lack of oxygen, which has catastrophic consequences, especially for fish and other aquatic organisms IGB.

Urgent need for action

According to the European Water Framework Directive, all natural bodies of water must be brought into good ecological status by 2027. In order to achieve this goal, the left-wing member of the state parliament Kerstin Eisenreich made a small inquiry to the state government about the condition of Lake Arendsee. The Ministry of the Environment and experts strongly recommend chemical phosphate precipitation to reduce the high phosphorus content. But this measure is stalled because the environmental impact assessment at the Lower Water Authority has not been completed since 2018. An application for lake restoration, which was originally supposed to be submitted in 2019, has not yet been submitted az online reported.

As environmental expert Prof. Michael Hupfer from the IGB notes, the summer stratification period, i.e. the stratification of water, has been extended by over 30 days since 1980. This leads to a critical oxygen situation in the deep water. His recommendation is a combination of so-called remediation measures, i.e. external interventions, and restoration, which are intended to bring about internal changes in the water. The first step is to use suitable precipitants to bind phosphorus.

A look at the water quality in Germany

The problems at Lake Arendsee are exemplary of the challenges that many bodies of water in Germany face. Current data from Federal Environment Agency show that almost two thirds of the water bodies in Germany have excessively high phosphorus levels. Eutrophication caused by over-fertilization is a key environmental problem; Excessive algae growth not only leads to oxygen deficits, but can also endanger entire ecosystems. Measures to reduce phosphorus pollution are urgently needed to ensure the sustainable status of all water bodies.

Despite the challenges, awareness of water quality and the environment has already increased, but it remains to be hoped that those responsible will finally take action and implement suitable solutions. Because the Arendsee is not only a place for relaxation and nature conservation, but also an important piece of nature that needs to be preserved.