Discussion about South Dakota

[forebearance]

I've felt the very worst kind of toxin in the outdoor air in three towns in the eastern edge of South Dakota: Watertown, Brookings, and Sioux Falls. Is the eastern edge of SD under assault?

I was in Sioux Falls the first time it happened there. It was in July. It felt like the Hampton Inn, where I was staying, was covered in a cloud of toxin. I overheard a housekeeper telling another: "My heart suddenly started hurting." I thought "I bet I know why."

But it only lasted one day. The next day the effect faded off everything, even my car. This was unusual in my experience, because usually when this kind of toxin strikes, it ruins things permanently for me. My car still has a residual poison glow from being parked in this toxin (aka the ick) in Lincoln, NE and Sioux City last spring. So this felt like "ick-lite".

Then in mid August, it happened again. This time the Hampton Inn and its immediate neighborhood seemed blanketed in a cloud of the same outdoor toxin that stayed for days. This kind of toxin has the ability to ruin buildings for me. It's impossible to keep the outside air from getting in to a building. So after a few days of room switching and experimenting with opening and closing the windows, I had to give up and leave.

But at that time, the toxin still seemed to be localized. I thought I could feel a trace of it around the Louise Ave. corridor, but the other parts of town were okay.

Then in September, it started to feel like waves of this toxin were blowing in on warm fronts from the south and covering pretty much the whole town. Argh!!!

It doesn't happen every day, but once in a while. It makes me incredibly sad to see a wonderful town like Sioux Falls go downhill.

When I first visited in March 2011, there were many older buildings, like the mall, that were perfectly fine, mold-wise. So given this toxin's ability to ruin buildings, I have to wonder if this is the first time this toxin has attacked this town.

Or does this happen every fall, and the effect fades by spring???

What is going to happen next? Will it keep getting worse? Should I give up on trying to find a building I can stand in SF, to rent for the winter? I'm not sure if it would be wise for me to try to stay in a place that gets plumed by this particular toxin.

Note that I felt this outdoor toxin first in Brookings, and then next in Watertown, and then last in SF. This kind of toxin appears to hang out 24/7 over Sioux City, so I wonder if it could have blown up to SF from there. Maybe up the Big Sioux river valley?

I also noticed the phenomenon Lisa has mentioned: that in eastern SD, I have driven past bright green algae growing in ponds, drainage ditches, and flooded areas without feeling any toxin in the air associated with it. There was no sting. And yet the sting does exist in other places!

The frustrating thing for me is that in eastern Nebraska, where I am from, this toxin exists, but it is very localized. Sure, it ruins neighborhoods, but not whole towns. I'm not used to that. I've only seen it ruin whole towns in Council Bluffs and Sioux City. Maybe the large, broad plumes of it are similar to what blows through Kansas.

Even on good air days, I can still feel this toxin when I drive on the freeway past the Hampton Inn. Why did the plume have to pick on a good, tolerable hotel?? It was the oldest Hampton Inn I've ever been able to stand, before this happened. That says something about how non-moldy it used to be around here.

I am sad, sad, sad.
Forebearance

[forebearance]

Oh yeah,
I was talking to some SD natives about air quality in general, and they told me that Rapid City and Spearfish experience inversions in the winter time. Would this be something moldies should be concerned about? I'm not sure. But it does sound kind of ominous.

[Lisa Petrison]

I was going to ask you about this, actually.

I was in Sioux Falls, at the KOA, on September 15-16 and felt some of that toxin then. It wasn't terrible, at least for me at my current level of reactivity, but it definitely gave me that little sense of my heart hurting that is my first warning symptom.

After I got a little bit east of the city, it disappeared.

Probably this was really stupid, but I left my trailer there to get worked on, because I didn't think it was a good idea to bring it to Chicago. Now you're making me worried though. If it gets bad enough there that you feel like you need to leave, please let me know and I will go out there and get the trailer to protect it.

This is very sad news indeed.

I did feel really great in De Smet when I spent the night there. And in most of SD. But yes, it does sound like the eastern part is iffy.

Minnesota, along that highway (I-90) felt fine too. Wisconsin less fine but tolerable. Milwaukee, horrible! Not ick when I drove through, but awful. Much worse than Chicago, which just feels dirty rather than having the toxins that are especially problematic for me (at least, outside of winter).

[forebearance]

How interesting that Milwaukee is horrible!

I have felt certain areas along I-90 in southwest Minnesota were less than great. Between the state line and Worthington are some low, swampy areas that get a lot of fog. And around Fairfield there are a lot of lakes and swamps, etc. But then Worthington and Blue Earth seem fine. So I guess my overall feeling is that it is fine to drive through there, but I wouldn't settle down in SW MN.

Right now I am really debating about Sioux Falls. I love the town, and I may be stubbornly clinging to it. But how bad is it, really? The amount of outdoor toxin is not that bad. It's not a really large or strong dose. But if it stays around for days and weeks, that could add up and potentially ruin buildings (for me).

But I may be really extremely sensitive right now. So I don't know how to judge it. I really appreciate hearing your opinion, Lisa.

If you left your trailer at Spader's, that part of town used to be far enough on the edge of town that it was okay. Ditto with the KOA and the Yogi Bear's campground. But by now it seems to be getting iffy.

I have driven from the west into Sioux Falls, and I didn't feel the toxin until I was right in town. Same for coming from the east. This past Sunday I drove up from the south and I felt the sting kick in at Tea, a little town just south of Sioux Falls.

This past Sunday was gorgeous weather, with sunny skies and decent air all the way from Omaha to Sioux City. Bad air in Sioux City, of course, and then fabulous air from north of Sioux City to Tea. I thought, if the Missouri Valley is having a decent air day, then surely Sioux Falls will be okay.

The fact that it wasn't okay starting in Tea made me wonder if Sioux Falls is developing a permanent cloud of toxin hanging over it. What is it about this particular toxin that seems to make it cling to urban areas??? Where is it coming from, and what is going on???

I just don't understand this phenomenon. But it seems to be localized to Sioux Falls and Tea. If you get out of town to the north, west, or east, the air is fine again.

Doing things in town like hanging out at the Starbuck's are not bothersome for me. It only gets bothersome when I try to find a place to sleep. So maybe I should look for a sleeping place that is out of town and go into town for day trips to get my dose of civilization.

So yeah, I think I will be sleeping elsewhere at least for a while. I'll be checking back with SF to see how it is doing. I keep hoping that maybe this phenomenon will end. Ha. Wishful thinking.

I've been reading tourist magazines, and I notice that in the Black Hills there are a lot of log cabins for rent. Some are even open year round. Hmmm. It's food for thought. Maybe if I can't find a place to sleep in southeastern SD, I will try heading west for the winter.

The campgrounds in southeastern SD seem to all close for the winter. Except for one scuzzy one in Sioux Falls, where I don't want to be anyway.

[Lisa Petrison]

I left my trailer at Great Plains RV, which is in Worthing (south of Sioux Falls). That sounds like it may be a bit better most of the time, based on what you're saying. So maybe it will be okay, when I get back to it.

I was just there briefly, so I didn't get to see very much of the town. It did seem like a good place though.

On that really cloudy day, there was just a bit of the toxin in the air. At first I thought it was cross-contamination, even though that's not a huge issue for me most of the time now. And I was kind of off-balance emotionally on that day. It wouldn't be a deal-killer, but it might be worse sometimes.

Looking back, I really loved being in De Smet. I felt really great there. Lots of strong winds. But that's a place I could only tolerate for a little while in terms of living environment.

I still have not found the perfect place. Palm Springs may be as close as it comes.

[forebearance]

Yes, I bet your trailer will be okay.
I can easily imagine that DeSmet would have great air.

Ah, the search for the perfect place. The perfect balance of good air and civilization.
I don't need much civilization. Just a Starbucks and a new Target and Kohl's would make me happy. Too bad it's so hard to find.

I'm being blown to smithereens in Mitchell at the moment. At least it seems like good air.

[Lisa Petrison]

Wind, you mean?

De Smet (especially the Ingalls homestead outside of town) was extremely windy also. That seems to be a positive contributor to our sort of air quality.

[forebearance]

Yes, wind.

[forebearance]

I was in Sioux Falls last weekend, and the air was fine everywhere except in the immediate neighborhood of the Hampton Inn, which is near the north end of Louise Ave. I think there may be some kind of pond across the freeway from the Hampton Inn. I wonder if there is something growing in the pond that is creating a plume of toxins.

[forebearance]

Ugh, Watertown has gone from bad to worse. The cloud of mold toxin is bigger and badder and covers the business strip, which includes the Hampton Inn, Starbuck's, Target, Walmart, Hy-Vee, Menard's, Walgreen's,etc.

[Lisa Petrison]

Well, that's peculiar. I wouldn't have thought things in SD would be so bad anywhere.

I see there are lakes right next to the town. I wonder if they're really problematic in terms of HAB's.

Generally the theme of the ick is that it exists in towns that are adjacent to bodies of water with the hazardous algae blooms in them. So it seems to me that the algae from the bodies of water gets into the sewers and transforms the "whatever" in the sewers into something really horrible.

It's almost Suicide Season though. So I guess it's not surprising that this stuff would be popping up.

I think I will have to move on from Chicago soon.

*

Well, here are some articles on that lake.

blogs.thepublicopinion.com/newsmonger/?p=4080

www.lakekampeska.org/projects2.html

denr.sd.gov/dfta/wp/tmdl/TMDL_Kampeska.pdf

*

Sioux Falls does not seem to fit this pattern. I don't see any substantial bodies of water there. But then, you're saying that the ick is not especially bad there, I think.

[forebearance]

Right. Sioux Falls only falls into the "sort of related to the Missouri River valley" category. Because the Big Sioux river flows into the Missouri at Sioux City.

The ick in Sioux Falls is annoying. The ick in Brookings (last I was there) and Watertown is "get me the heck out of here!" bad. Both towns had major flooding this summer. The toxin clouds began this summer. Thanks for the articles.

[forebearance]

Wow, Lake Kampeska sounds pretty bad, alge-wise.