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8/1/2024
WT Staff
 August 1, 2024 913 am PDT
HAPPENING NOW
HABs heating up around the USA
WT HAB Tracker from state sources and where available, the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
California: Central Valley watershed's Clear Lake has been the HAB hot spot in California this week with ten DANGER level postings and three HAB WARNINGS on one body of water in Lake County. The US EPA guidelines for recreational water mark the highest level of certain algal toxins that can be tolerated without negative health impacts over a period of ten days of exposure. A safe level has been established as a guideline, not a legally enforceable limit, for microcystins and cylindrospermopsins, (hepatotoxins). The safe levels for small children is lower than the level that can be tolerated by school-aged children and adults. See below for those levels.
The confirmed presence of cyanobacteria in these lakes is enough to prompt the recreational public health advisories. Watch for the signage around each access point, each beach, each boat launch and follow the instructions to keep your family and pets safe around the water this summer.
Lake Chabot, Lake Anza, Contra Loma Reservoir are also posted with Danger alerts at one or more locations. HAB Warnings apply to Pyramid Lake, Santee Lake #7 and a pond in Heritage Park, San Diego County. These advisories warn to avoid all contact with this water. See the California HAB tracker report with advisories by watershed region, HAB DANGER and WARNING advisories are pinned to the map with bluegreen tags, the full list is here.
Louisiana: The latest upload from the NCCOS was captured July 31 at wind speed 3 mph. This image is partially cloud obscured, the wind is right for assessing the HAB extent visible between clouds. The Pen has grown a large, dense HAB that now fills the south two thirds of the water body at a high concentration 700 thousand cells per 100 ml. Lac des Allemands, Bayou Fortier, Bayou des Allemands HABs are visible, dense and 700 thousand cells per 100 ml. See the latest full report here.
Lake Erie west basin: Ohio, Michigan
The latest satellite view from NCCOS was captured July 31 at surface wind speed 7.3 mph, mostly clear with a great view of the Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay HABs. Maumee Bay State Park HAB has escalated in concentration over the last 24 hours, up over a million cells per 100 ml. New microcystins test results from a July 18 sample show the liver toxin was down below the US EPA guideline for recreational water, from 40 ug/L to 4.7 ug/L. The higher concentration HAB bloom socked in to the Maumee Bay State Park shoreline may cause this test value to shift upward again. With the latency being up to ten days from sample to test results posted, the beach advisory remains in place. Avoid contact with the water, for swimmers and pets. See the last Ohio HAB report here.
New York
The latest satellite image from NCCOS was captured July 31 at unknown wind speed, a completely cloud obscured snap of Lake Champlain. The previous image taken July 30 showed Baie Missisquoi HAB filling in the north half of the bay at a higher density, closing gaps between the dispersed mats seen earlier in the week on the Canadian side of the border. The south half of the bay HAB remains as dispersed mats, all HAB activity with a concentration matching the color scale for 600 to 700 thousand cells per 100 ml with no hot spots. East of Shelburne Bay, presumably Shelburne Pond was visible July 30 with a lakewide HAB 2 to 3 million cells per 100 ml.
From the NYS DEC HABs reporting center, one hundred and forty-seven HABs light up the notifications dashboard Thursday morning, up from one hundred and fourteen yesterday and just eighty-three this time Tuesday. New reports keep coming in for Finger Lakes' Canandaigua Lake, jumping up overnight from 17 HABs in the north half of the water body to 31 HABs reported and confirmed, all the new reports also appearing in the north half. See bluegreen tags on the map to the right for the impacted water bodies with at least one active HAB, the full list of HABs is found here.
Georgia:
Georgia Healthy Beaches program of Coastal Public Health tests beaches, posting permanent and temporary advisories about bacteria levels. Jekyll Island has two permanent advisories in place, both beaches tested clear for bacteria in the last quarterly water sample. As of this report, all St Simons Island and Jekyll Island beaches are marked with the green light signal, no temporary advisories are issued for elevated bacteria. No new information has been found on the presence of HABs in Georgia since our last update. Georgia Environmental Protection Division does accept reports from the public of suspicious algal blooms. As we receive updates from EPD, the results will be found here. The latest Georgia beach advisories are available here.
See the North American drainage basin map here, scroll all the way down to see how surface water moves across the continent into the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Arctic Oceans. WT Media Group tells the story of water in three countries, Canada, USA and Mexico. See the drinking water advisories, hazardous spills, floods, drought and harmful algal blooms plotted on the maps, as the water flows. Check out the CrimeBox for historic prosecutions under the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act box for details on public drinking water facilities, interviews with the scientists and tech developers on the leading edge of clean water technology here.
As many drinking water facilities are supplied from surface water reservoirs, the streamflow situation is pertinent to both drinking water supply and quality. High flows can stir up sediment and cause turbidity in the reservoirs, requiring additional treatments to render the water potable. Low flow volume is linked to warmer temperatures in the reservoir and can be an issue for water quality where HABs are present. WT tracks streamflow trends with an eye to the impacts on drinking water supply and quality in each of the state's watersheds. Check the watershed layer on the map to see the direction of flow and streamflows that may be impacting drinking water today.
Harmful Algal Blooms: WT follows the movement and growth of harmful algal blooms (HABs) as provided by the satellite monitoring program of the NCCOS for New York's Lake Champlain, Ohio's Lake Erie and Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain and surrounding area. Interpretation of satellite images is best in clear conditions at wind speed less than 4 mph, where the appearance and extent of HABs is reliably matched to a color scale for concentration. HABs are known to produce algal toxins of concern for raw drinking water sources and recreational water bodies. Plan beach access to avoid HABs and consider carrying a rapid test kit to detect the toxin microcystins.
US EPA Health Advisories for public drinking water specify the maximum threshhold for two common algal toxins, microcystins and cylindrospermopsins, liver toxins produced by cyanobacteria. Note these levels are health advisories, not legally enforceable regulatory limits. Two levels are identified, separating the population by age. The first level applies to pre-school aged children, the second level applies for those age 6 and up. The EPA health advisory gives the maximum level of toxin that would not produce negative health impacts over a ten day period. For microcystins, .3 ug/L under 6 yrs old; 1.6 ug/L for 6 and older. For cylindrospermopsins, the toxin associated with the HAB Aphanizomenon the level for preschoolers is .7 ug/L, for those 6 and up, 3 ug/L.
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