Underwater Robot To Help Utilities Fight Off Algae

Water utilities have a new ally in the fight against toxic algae: underwater robots.

Officially known as an environmental sample processor (ESP), the robot is essentially a laboratory in a can, the Associated Press reported. Armed with sensors and cellular technology, it stays underwater for months to monitor algae concentrations and toxin levels. Keeping tabs on six species of algae, the robot allows researchers to monitor algal blooms without going out in boats to take water samples.

ESP technology will soon be used to benefit drinking water systems. This August, an ESP “is being deployed in Lake Erie, just outside the intake pipe for the City of Toledo’s drinking water,” Scientific American reported.

Officials banned water use in Toledo two summers ago due to toxic algae contamination. The crisis left around 400,000 residents unable to use their water for over two days, CNN reported.

“Standing sentinel in Lake Erie, the ESP will be able to take water samples, measure the abundance of Microsystis and the quantity of toxin. Because these results are beamed to monitoring centers in near real time, water officials in Toledo will have the unprecedented ability to keep tabs on the safety of drinking water without ever leaving land,” Scientific American reported.

In May, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Washington deployed “the so-called ocean robot about 50 feet into waters off the coast of La Push, Washington, near a known hotspot for toxic algae blooms,” the report said.

The backdrop is that dangerous levels of domoic acid, produced by algae, were found in shellfish last year in California, Washington, and Oregon.

“The domoic acid was produced by microscopic algae that flourished during the summer amid unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. The massive algae bloom produced some of the highest concentrations of domoic acid observed along some parts of the West Coast,” the AP reported.

Stephanie Moore, a scientist with NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, described the benefits of the technology.

"We're actually miniaturizing a lab, putting it in a can and then leaving it out in the field to do the work for us," Moore said, per the AP. "This is so great because in so many of these remote offshore locations, we can leave the lab out there and get this information in a matter of hours rather than days."