The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
City readies for algal blooms
Avon Lake Regional Water invested to prepare for fight against algal blooms expected to be worse this year because of warm temperatures
Avon Lake Regional Water recent infrastructure investments have the lakeside city prepared to fight back against harmful algal blooms that threaten Lake Erie.
The water utility is educating customers on recent infrastructure improvements that will help in maintaining service.
In July, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration released its annual Lake Erie forecast on possible algal blooms, predicting 7.5 on a 1-to-10 severity index. With continued warm weather and lake temperatures, the threat of harmful algal blooms arises.
According the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an algal bloom is “an overgrowth of algae.”
The colors of algal blooms range from green to blue or brown to red.
Besides naturally occurring, algal blooms can occur from increased nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, in the water, the EPA said.
A wet spring will contribute to fueling algal growth with an enhanced flow of nutrients into the lake.
The blooms could result in higher costs for cities and local governments that need to treat drinking water, along with preventing people from enjoying lakeside recreation activities such fishing, swimming, boating and visiting the shoreline, and harm the region’s vital summer tourism economy, EPA officials said.
“Communities along Lake Erie rely upon clean, healthy water to support their community’s wellbeing and economic livelihoods,” said Nicole LeBoeuf, acting director of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service. “This forecast provides timely and trusted science-based information to water managers and public health officials so they can better anticipate blooms, mitigate impacts and reduce future outbreaks.”
Richard Stumpf, the lead scientist for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science’s Lake Erie Bloom forecast, explained the impact of the rainfall on the lake.
“This spring brought regular, heavy rainfall to the Maumee River watershed (near Toledo) which would normally carry a lot of nutrients into the lake,” Stumpf said. “However, due to the amount of rain this year, farmers were unable to plant their fields which reduced the nutrient concentration.
“That combined with higher than normal lake levels, presents an opportunity to test the accuracy of our models.”
Protection
Avon Lake Regional Water officials said while algal blooms can be harmful to a person’s health, it also increases water treatment costs at the water utility’s water filtration plant.
To ensure the safety of drinking water from harmful algal blooms, Avon Lake Regional Water performs the following proactive measures each year: continuous testing of the water drawn into water infiltration plant; monitoring local and regional weather patterns; adding additional powdered activated carbon when conditions are present for a bloom; and communication with other facilities across Lake Erie to understand their current conditions.
Also, over the past several years, the Avon Lake Board of Municipal Utilities (the Board) has authorized a series of critical infrastructure investments to Avon Lake Regional Water’s system to ensure its customers have clean, drinking water if there is an emergency and/or a harmful algal bloom.
Those investments include:
• 2016, three million gallon underground Clear Well
• 2017, three million gallon Walker Road Water Tower
• 2019, West Ridge Interconnect, a partnership between Avon Lake Regional Water, Rural Lorain County Water Authority and the city of Elyria where either Elyria or Avon Lake Regional Water may supply up to eight gallons of water to the other in an emergency
More research
The Municipal Utilities Board supports also supports additional proactive measures, such as partnering with Great Lakes Biomimicry and the University of Akron to sponsor two University of Akron Ph.D. fellows studying biomimicry on research to help predict when a harmful algal bloom may occur.
According to Great Lakes Biomimicry, “biomimicry is the practice of learning from nature and emulating its forms, processes, and systems to solve human problems and drive innovation.”
If they are able to predict when an algal bloom will occur, Avon Lake Regional Water can implement measures to prevent the impact to the water supply and save customers money by not having unneeded increases to water treatment costs, officials said.
Avon Lake Regional Water illuminated their new Walker Road water tower for the first time on Aug. 6.
Lighting was installed on the tower as a way to raise awareness of the importance and value of water as one of Northeast Ohio’s greatest resources.
“The employee-designed and installed water tower lighting at our new 3 million gallon reserve tank on Walker Road in Avon Lake, spotlights Avon Lake Regional Water’s commitment to prudent investment in key elements of infrastructure that improve reliability of water supply, even during transient threats to intake quality or quantity,” said John Dzwonczyk, chairman of the Avon Lake Board of Municipal Utilities. “Our multi-year plan to raise overall organizational quality has had the good fortune of coinciding with excellent financing rates — often as low as 0% — and will be a bright spot in our history, like the tower will be a bright spot in the Avon Lake skyline, for many years to come.”
The new water tower is part of Avon Lake Regional Water’s $50 million capital improvement plan to provide its customers in Avon Lake and its bulk customers a more reliable water system for emergency situations and to ensure its customers do not experience a disruption in water service.
Financing for the $8 million water tower came from the Ohio EPA’s State Revolving Loan Fund and Avon Lake Regional Water was able to secure a loan with a zero percent interest rate for the project.
“Communities along Lake Erie rely upon clean, healthy water to support their community’s wellbeing and economic livelihoods.” — Nicole LeBoeuf, acting director of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Ocean Service