Group offers strategy as algae reports rise

A state working group has developed a management plan for harmful algal blooms.

In recent years, Arkansas officials have received several reports of scum on lakes, even unusually late into the year.

Cyanotoxins in a pond at a Fayetteville dog park prompted a temporary closure of the park last summer. Toxins were too high on Lake Catherine for a short time in October. Toxins in Brewer Lake, a drinking-water supply, were too high in raw water for infants, although tests on treated water showed that it was safe for consumption.

Most of the time the scum doesn’t contain harmful levels of cyanotoxins, but occasionally it does, said Brie Olsen, who receives water monitoring and assessment reports at the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality.

The management plan is not regulatory but is intended for people to use when they have or suspect they have harmful algal blooms.

The plan also recommends educating users of swimming spots to encourage more reporting if they see something and to help them avoid illness. Further, whoever manages the water body should issue a public advisory if a potential harmful algal bloom is merely “visually identified.” Then they should immediately collect water samples and close the area if tests show toxins above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended values.

The EPA has regulatory limits for only two toxins, but Olsen told the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission that she “would be surprised” if the EPA were not developing regulatory limits for more toxins that the working group considered harmful to public health.

The Arkansas Harmful Algal Bloom Workgroup, formed in 2015, released the 38-page plan last month. Ol

sen presented it Friday to the commission.

Commission member Richard McMullen, the designee of the state Health Department, thanked the working group and the Environmental Quality Division for their work and for creating a network of people focused on harmful algal blooms.

The blooms are caused by varying factors in a water body, such as access to light and nutrient input. Nutrients include nitrogen and phosphorus, which are commonly found in the waste of humans and animals and commercial fertilizer.

Algal blooms occur most often in the summer, under prolonged warm conditions.

The plan notes the expected increase of commercial fertilizer contributing nitrogen to waters in the coming years.

The algae crisis that hit the Toledo, Ohio, water supply in 2014 and algal blooms in waters in Georgia, Texas and North Carolina last summer have increased public awareness, and that may be why the Environmental Quality Division is getting more reports, Olsen said.

“We are seeing that this is becoming more common and that it’s becoming widespread,” Olsen said.

The plan explains the types of toxins found in algal blooms and how samples should be taken for laboratory testing to confirm the existence of the toxins.

“Hopefully this kind of thing will help in quick decision-making and will help in allocating resources,” Olsen said.

If cost is an obstacle to laboratory testing, the plan outlines how simple tests can be conducted using a sample of the scum and a jar or a stick to determine whether toxins are likely present. If the algae form a ring at the top of the jar or if the stick looks like it’s been painted by the scum, then cyanobacteria are likely present.

However, Olsen said, only a laboratory test can say for sure whether the bacteria are there.

The Environmental Quality Division and the Water Resources Center at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville have laboratories that can test samples.