Summer Expected To Bring Big Algae Outbreak To Lake Erie

Raw lake water drawn in through the intake crib is treated with potassium permanganate and chlorine for hours en route to the city’s low-service pump station on the shoreline.

She said the Mississquoi Bay area tends to see the most of these toxins every year.

Scientists stated, fortunately, there is no correlation between bloom sizes and the toxicity of the water in an area where algae is present. “Long-term trends since 1990 indicate that phosphorus concentrations in several segments continue to increase”.

Reduced phosphorus levels will benefit the Great Lakes ecosystem, which is home to more than 100 species of fish and thousands species of plants and animals.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment added Concannon State Fishing Lake in Finney County to its list of blue-green algae warning sites since last week.

It was nearly a year ago that toxins from the algae contaminated the drinking water for 400,000 people in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan. This is not the case with Lake Champlain. Last year, the city of Toledo had to shut down its water supply for almost three days. Science Daily said many algal blooms are the result of an excess of available nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus in the water and surrounding land. The authors of the State of the Lake report wrote that Lake Champlain is an excellent source of drinking water as long as the right treatment methods are in place.

-Avoid using the water for drinking, bathing, or showering, and do not allow children, pets, or livestock to drink or swim in the bloom. Cyanobacteria, like plants, rely on photosynthesis and grow near the surface of the water. Severity of the algae bloom forecast for 2015 “While we are forecasting a severe bloom, much of the lake will be fine most of the time”.

There are now no short-term solutions to fix a blue-green algal bloom.

Scientists say they can’t predict whether there will be another “Toledo event”, as that depends on how the bloom develops.

“The general message that we’re trying to get out to people is to take responsibility for your own actions”, Winslow said. They said toxins can not be removed by boiling or filtering the water.

Winslow said they have expanded the geographic scope of the monitoring program “tremendously” in the last few years.

Cyanobacterial blooms, the formal name for the blue-green algae, are the problem here.

The algae is only affecting the northern end of the lake.

Hickox has lived on Doctors Lake for more than 30 years. The algae toxins can irritate a person’s skin and, if ingested, cause diarrhea and vomiting.