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8/2/2024
WT Staff
 August 2, 2024 1036 am CDT
HAPPENING NOW
Weekly HAB update due out today
As the temperatures soar, what could be more important than clean drinking water? Check here for the latest drinking water advisories, tagged on our maps in yellow. More to follow.
WT HAB Tracker from state sources and where available, the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
California: The weekly HAB update is expected today. July 26 update had Clear Lake as the HAB hot spot with ten danger-level postings and three HAB warnings. Lake Chabot, Lake Elsinore, Lake Anza, Contra Loma Reservoir are also posted with Danger alerts on one or more locations. HAB warnings apply to part of Pyramid Lake, Santee Lake #7 and a pond in Heritage Park, San Diego County. Thirty six additional sites were posted with HAB caution advisories. 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 August 1 at wind speed 7.2 mph. This image is clear, the wind speed could be an issue for assessing HABs in Lake Pontchartrain, none are visible, however the wind could be hiding the bloom mat underwater. The Pen is visible again today with a lakewide HAB that has pulled away from the shorelines and shifted northward. Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier share a hot spot between them, 2 million cells per 100 ml. See the full report 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.
New York
The latest satellite image from NCCOS was captured August 1 at unknown wind speed, mostly cloud obscured, the Baie Missisquoi HAB shows between cloud breaks at 600 thousand cells per 100 ml concentration. East of Shelburne Bay, presumably Shelburne Pond in Vermont shows a lakewide HAB 2 to 3 million cells per 100 ml, keep pets on a leash to ensure no accidental contact with the scum or water, it is especially harmful for dogs.
From the NYS DEC HABs reporting center, one hundred and sixty-nine HABs on the board Friday morning, the number of confirmed reports doubling from Tuesday to Thursday this week. High score leader is Canandaigua Lake with 36 active HABs. New to the impacted list are Skaneateles Lake, Peach Lake, Arctic Lake, Green Lake and Mongaup Pond. See bluegreen tags on the map for the impacted water bodies with at least one active HAB, the full list of HABs is found here.
Lake Erie west basin: Ohio, Michigan
The latest satellite view from NCCOS was captured August 1 at surface wind speed 8.1 mph, mostly obscured with a peek at the Lake Erie and Sandusky Bay HABs between cloud breaks. North Maumee Bay is visible at high concentration up to 1.5 million cells per 100 ml. Maumee Bay State Park HAB is visible with a hot spot up against Cedar Point at a million cells per 100 ml. Sandusky Bay HAB appears lower concentration 500 thousand cells per 100 ml. See the last Ohio HAB report 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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