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8/29/2024
WT Staff
 August 29, 2024 1153 am EDT
Safer Drinking Water in California, by the numbers
Living in California has some serious advantages in the drinking water department.
According to the US EPA Enforcement and Compliance online records, California currently has 7416 drinking water facilities holding active permits. Taken together, these facilities handle drinking water for close to 39 million people. Remarkably, just twenty of these facilities have been cited with serious violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act in the last three years. These facilities are relatively small, serving on average 228 people. As such, the number of Californians supplied by serious violator facilities is less than 5000 persons, .001% of the population.
Compare this with New York - half the population with 800 more drinking water facilities to inspect. Of the 8205 permitted facilities, 70 are EPA enforcement priorities, serious violators serving on average 1833 people. A total of 128,285 New Yorkers rely on serious violators for their drinking water, that's .65% of the total population in NYS. Ohio has around 11.8 million residents served by 4216 drinking water facilities. Of these, 58 are serious violators, 1655 Ohio residents on average for each EPA Enforcement Priority facility, .8% of the Ohio population. Georgia, with around 10.7 million residents and 2383 drinking water facilities has 29 serious violators handling drinking water for 47 thousand Georgians, that's around 1620 people for each serious violator facility, .4% of the population. Louisiana has the lowest population in the WT coverage area, 4.6 million people, served by 1260 facilities. One hundred and six of these licensed facilities, some public and some private have significant SDWA violations, serving almost 400 thousand citizens, average 3774 people per facility, 8.7% of the population.
b>WT HAB Tracker from the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science(NCCOS) and State sources where available
California
The freshwater Recent HAB Bloom Update came out Friday August 23 with one HAB DANGER-level advisory applied to Lindo Lake in San Diego County. This advisory for algal toxin states toxins in this water can harm people and kill fish. The posted signage specifies cautions including no swimming, no wading, no consuming of fish or shellfish caught in these waters. Three HAB Warning advisories have been issued for Weist Lake, Crowley Lake Marina and Guajome Lake. The HAB warning advisory carries the same caption as the danger advisory, with the exception that fish fillets cleaned with tap water or bottled water and properly cooked can be consumed. This water is still not considered safe for wading or swimming, and shellfish should not be consumed. Note that water containing HABs likely also contains toxins, the water cannot be made safe for consumption by boiling.
Georgia
Cyanobacteria cell counts have been added for Jackson Lake, Lake Lanier and Lake Hartwell. These are not entirely up to date but give a rare glimpse into the presence of cyanobacteria in the State of Georgia, not presently requiring drinking water facilities to test for cyanotoxins. Lake Burton remains the high cell count leader at over 500 thousand cells per ml, this estimate from April 20, 2024. Next is Alexanders Landing in Walter F George Reservoir, measured around 125 thousand cells per ml in early June this year. More to follow as we work through the Cyanobacterial Assessment Network (CyAN) collected data for the major water bodies in Georgia. See the Georgia water bodies list with cell counts here.
Louisiana: The latest image of Lake Pontchartrain and southeast Louisiana water bodies captured August 28 at an estimated wind speed 12.7 mph. This image is mostly clear, showing Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, still showing of HABs. Bayou Fortier is visible in this capture, widespread HAB 2 million cells. Lac des Allemands is cloud obscured. See the Louisiana images here.
New York
The HAB notifications dashboard has reached a new daily high, 309 active reports by yesterday afternoon, 307 this morning, more than double the highest number of active reports confirmed at any time last season. First HAB of the season reported for Canadarago Lake, the majority of new reports are in the Finger Lakes. HABs reported prior to August 15 have been removed to the archives, 639 HABs retired during the 2024 season. The latest impacted water body list is available here, updates are in progress.
A nice clear shot of Lake Champlain provided by the NCCOS August 27 shows the northeast water with a high concentration bloom along the north shoreline, the concentration appears a match for 3 million cells per ml. Lake Carmi is full of the bluegreen algae at the 900 thousand to 1 million cells per ml concentration. Water east of Shelburne Bay, likely Shelburne Pond, lakewide HAB 3 million cells. The Lake Champlain image is cloud obscured south of Baie Missisquoi, a prior image captured Aug 26 showed hot spots in the channel near Alburg-Swanton bridge, another at the north end of North Hero Island, up to 2 million cells per ml. The majority of the bloom matches 900 thousand to 1 million cells per 100 ml. See the NCCOS color images, here.
Lake Erie west basin
The latest capture of Lake Erie snapped Aug 28 is mostly cloud obscured, a limited view of the widespread HAB around in Maumee Bay and in open water. The prior image from August 26 is a clear view of the Lake Erie HAB. The northwest extent Stony Point north of Monroe, concentration 300 thousand cells per ml. The southeast extent is Magee Marsh Wildlife area, concentration 600 thousand cells per ml. The southwest extent in Maumee May at Toledo and Maumee Bay State Park demonstrate extreme high concentration 2 to 4 million cells. See the Lake Erie HAB here.
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