A Great Lakes Plan For Fighting Algal Bloom

The Great Lakes, five interconnected bodies in northeastern North America forming the largest such freshwater group on Earth, have long been a symbol of pristine marine life and natural wonder. Recently, however, they have been some of the greatest victims of algal bloom and an indicator of its rise due to increased nutrient contamination and climate change.

Algal blooms, made of toxic cyanobacteria, are naturally occurring and have been reported in Lake Erie since the 1960s. The toxins they produce can be hazardous to health when consumed or through recreational activity in the water. The blooms also cause hypoxia, or low-oxygen areas that cannot support marine life, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal scientific agency that conducts studies on the Great Lakes.

Recently, harmful algal blooms (HABs) have been hitting record levels in Lake Erie with the 2015 bloom being the largest biomass in recorded history, surpassing the record that was set in 2011. Last summer, ThinkProgress reported that the likely explanation for the increase is a combination of rising phosphorus levels from commercial agriculture and rising temperatures.

And it isn’t just the Great Lakes that are suffering from the rise. According to a recent U.S. EPA survey, almost one-quarter of the lakes tested are at moderate to high risk for cyanotoxins.

In response to the issue, and possibly to guide other regions dealing with algae, NOAA will be publishing a “Great Lakes Plan on Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia.”

“We envision that the Great Lakes Plan will help provide industries and communities with the tools to predict, control, mitigate, and prevent HABs and hypoxia and their impacts,” NOAA told Water Online. “A cohesive plan can help stakeholders understand the multiple causes of HABs and hypoxia and how they can take appropriate actions to decrease their prevalence in the environment. Implementation of the plan will provide clear sources of authoritative information to support action and a roadmap for federal actions and research.”

The report will include detailed algal bloom prediction and detection tools to help drinking water utilities know when to treat water for toxins, when to close particular water intake sites, and when to top off reservoirs to sustain drinking water supplies while those intakes are closed. It will also include improvements to NOAA’s previously released tools. While designed for Lake Erie, the final plan will have information that is applicable to any utility dealing with similar threats.

“Advances in 2016 include improved spatial resolution in the Lake Erie HAB forecast bulletin, the incorporation of information on water-column mixing to determine whether toxins are at the surface where they are a potential threat to swimmers or at the bottom near water intakes, incorporation of toxin data, and forecasts for specific points,” the administration said. “NOAA and EPA are working on enhancing future capabilities to include 3D modeling, as well as improved methods for predicting the toxicity of a bloom.”

As of now, NOAA recommends that utilities susceptible to HABs develop treatment plans catered to the type of contaminant toxin that needs to be removed and whether it is dissolved or remains in cyanobacterial cells. The final plan will call for early warnings of the emergence of HABs to give communities the most time possible to prepare. This will include monitoring nutrient input into coastal and inland waters and the use of models that predict the likelihood of HAB development, as well as integrated exposure assessments that examine how the environment and pollutants affect human health.

“The assessments help with forecasting, preventing, and mitigating exposure that leads to adverse human health or ecological outcomes by helping scientists create early warning systems and predictions,” NOAA said.

Creation of the plan was prompted by the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act, passed by Congress in 1998 following large-scale water quality problems in the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Long Island Sound. When the act was reauthorized in 2014, it was expanded to develop action strategies and recommendations to address HABs and hypoxia. NOAA expects to deliver a finalized Great Lakes Plan to Congress later this year.

We will soon know whether this year will mark a new record in algal bloom for Lake Erie. It’s all but predetermined that it will at least approach a new record. Hopefully, the Great Lakes Plan will keep 2017 from doing the same.