The 8th Blue-Greenest Governor’s lake algae

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Blue-Green Algae Bloom Detected in Missisquoi Bay

July 21, 2009

BURLINGTON – Elevated levels of toxins detected in a blue-green algae bloom on the eastern shores of the Missisquoi Bay has prompted the Vermont Department of Health to advise boaters, swimmers and residents to take the following precautions:

• Avoid contact with algae-contaminated water.

• Do not swim or bathe in the water. Remember that children are considered to be at higher risk because they are more likely to drink the water.

• Monitor water intakes for private residences. If you see algae present near the intake, switch to an alternate safe source of water.

• Do not use algae contaminated water to prepare meals or brush teeth.

Boiling water will not remove toxins.

• Do not allow pets in algae-contaminated water.

http://www.vermont.gov/portal/…

Green rating site that gave Gov. Douglas his 8th Greenest Gov. in US rating

http://www.greenopia.com/USA/G…

2 thoughts on “The 8th Blue-Greenest Governor’s lake algae”

  1. to  my email of 14 days ago expressing skepticism at their methods for Gov. Douglas being named 8th Greenest US Gov..

    We appreciate the feedback.

    While Governor Douglas certainly did not have the most aggressive policies out there (we had him as above average), the reason for his higher placing was his much better than average transparency (something that hurt a lot of Governors) and the fact that there was measurable improvements based off some of his policies.  We incorporated a scale that measured how successful various energy, water, and emissions programs had been and Vermont had one of the highest results.  While this can certainly be argued was not entirely due to Governor Douglas, we felt this was important to consider and gave it a small part of the weighting.

    We did not feel that looking at policies alone was good enough to pick the greenest Governors.  So many of them never follow through and oftentimes resource conservation measures almost never have the intended effect.

    At any rate, we know this result was a bit on the controversial side, but we stand by our scales and do not think the other green governor ratings out there do much justice.  While we certainly concede that our scale is not perfect, we pride ourselves in considered more parts of the equation than most other groups.

    Once again, we appreciate the feedback and if you want to see the criteria we used in their entirety, you can click on the icons on the governor’s scorecard and it will take you to our criteria page.

    Best,

    Greenopia

    Doug

  2. I would be greatly heartened if, in fact, “there was measurable improvements,” although the faulty verb tense doesn’t inspire confidence. But I’d like to know more about what those measurable improvements, in fact, was. What has improved on the Governor’s watch? Certainly not Lake Champlain.

    Maybe things haven’t gotten as much worse as they have elsewhere because Vermont remains a relatively wild place with lots of open land, but it seems a stretch to credit that to Jim Douglas. (Except insofar as he has failed in his alleged top priority, job creation, hence keeping our population and energy consumption low.)

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