Scientists recently lifted a blue green algae warning in waterway in Oklahoma, according to a published report.

Lawmakers in Oklahoma have been mulling over the past few weeks whether to overhaul the state's blue green algae warning system. Critics asserted that businesses throughout the state suffered last year as warning levels were raised in many waterways. They added that a majority of the rivers, lakes and streams that were designated as potentially dangerous did not, in fact, pose any sort of risk to public health.

As a result, they said that the warning system should be overhauled, a move that companies that rely on the summer tourism season have supported. Revenue dropped precipitously last summer at businesses because of the warnings issued at waterways such as Lake Texoma,, worrying both lawmakers and business owners.

However, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said this week that it had lifted an advisory at Lake Texoma, the result of a successful algae removal campaign that helped drastically reduce concentrations of the toxic pathogen. Proponents of the state's current warning system said that the lifting of the advisory at Lake Texoma underscored the scheme's effectiveness, although backers of the repeal balked at such an assertion.

Regardless, scientists from the U.S. Corps of Engineers said that samples collected by the Grayson County Health Department in mid-April indicated that the lake's blue green algae count had fallen below 20,000 cells per milliliter of water, a figure that is considered a potentially dangerous threshold.

"The drop between March and April at Treasure Island was 20 fold," said Tony Clyde, the limnologist representing the Tulsa District for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "I would anticipate that a 10 to 20 fold decrease has occurred in the upper reaches of the Red and Washita River arms based upon the current release schedule, recent rainfall, reservoir elevation, and the subsidence of the bloom in Lebanon Pool and Brier Creek."

While local officials cheered the news, public health and environmental scientists said the state must maintain its coordinate initiative to rid waterways, including Lake Texoma, of blue green algae blooms. Steadily rising phosphorous and nitrogen levels, among other factors, have spurred the growth of the blooms over the past decade, experts said.

Environmental advocates urged officials to continue to treat affected waterways with nutrient removal chemicals and alum, compounds that help reduce phosphorous and nitrogen levels.


 

Posted on May 3rd, 2012 under Agricultural Runoff, Lake and Pond Algae Control, Wastewater News