Toxic blue-green algae has been found in about 40 lakes and waterways across California—an all-time high and twice as bad as last year.
The growing extent of the algae caught water agencies off-guard, reported the East Bay Times on Sunday.
The cyanobacterial toxins in these algal blooms can easily kill dogs or wildlife and can cause a variety of symptoms in humans, including difficulty breathing, fever, and vomiting. There have been rare cases of human fatalities.
Drought in California has created optimal conditions for the algae to flourish. Stagnant water, high temperatures, and too much nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural run-off (from fertilizer) are to blame.
But the World Health Organization reports that all 50 states are affected by the toxic algae. Coastal blooms and those in the Great Lakes have received the most attention from officials thus far, but inland freshwater blooms are an emerging concern.
Monitoring and regulation related to harmful algal blooms (HABs) has been limited, not only in recreational waters but also in drinking water, though great strides have been made over the past year.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees HABs research, reported that the blooms on Lake Erie were the worst ever in 2015, covering some 300 square miles. An unprecedented bloom also stretched in coastal waters from central California up to Alaska.
Marine HABs alone have an average annual cost of $82 million due to impacts on health, tourism, and the seafood industry. That’s a conservative estimate, according to NOAA. The added costs incurred by freshwater blooms are as yet unknown.
Drinking Water
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is responsible for drinking water regulation, has included toxins from the algal blooms in its most recent Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR).
Under the UCMR, EPA identifies 30 currently unregulated contaminants every five years and monitors them in municipal water supplies to see how prevalent they are, whether they are of concern to human health, and whether they should be regulated.
While EPA is focused on four particular toxins produced by the algal blooms, “there’s always the risk that cyanobacteria may produce other bioactive metabolites that might still be a risk,” said microbiologist Tim Otten, Ph.D. in an email. He uses DNA-based tools at the Bend Genetics lab in Sacramento to monitor water quality.
Otten gave the example of a recently identified amino acid produced by cyanobacteria, BMAA, that has been linked to neurological diseases. Otten believes we should use the so-called “precautionary principle,” which basically states, “better safe than sorry.”
