Local group takes on toxic algae head on

Ian Jeffries doesn't notice the algae on William H. Harsha Lake, when he's cutting through the water, rowing vigorously toward the finish line with his teammates.

But when the race is over and the algae is in bloom, the blue-green stuff is hard to miss, stinking and floating in the water, says the Seven Hills School senior.

The algae, which has reappeared in East Fork State Park's lake for several years, produces a liver toxin, but it has never reached a level considered too dangerous for people to enter the water.

"If it got worse, we'd be in big trouble," said Greg Hull, Jeffries' coach of the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club, one of many clubs that call Harsha Lake home.

Toxic algal blooms appear to be intensifying around the globe, many scientists say, doing damage to aquatic ecosystems, local economies and the health of animals and humans.

Giant blooms in Lake Erie can be seen from space and forced a two-day tap water ban this year in Toledo.

At Grand Lake St. Marys in Western Ohio, a massive bloom has closed the recreational haven on more than one occasion. State officials believe it caused illness in seven people in 2010.

Harmful algae was confirmed in August in General Butler State Park Lake, less than an hour south of Covington, according to the Kentucky Division of Water — closer than ever before to Northern Kentucky, according to state information.

This year, as Clermont County prepares to host several rowing regattas at Harsha Lake, including the USRowing Club National Championships in July, leading environmental, government and clean water officials are putting their heads together in an attempt to prevent or control the algae on the man-made lake — and hopefully discover solutions that could help elsewhere.

Blooms proliferate and a lethal dose is "very small"

University of Cincinnati professor Dionysios Dionysiou has been studying harmful algae for years, in particular, how they react in water treatment systems.

They can present a major challenge, he said.

"(These) toxins are very toxic," Dionysiou said. "A lethal dose ... needed to kill animals is very small."

The situation in Toledo, where 400,000 people were advised not to turn on their taps, shows us how serious the situation can be, Dionysiou said, but every case of algae is different.

First, there are several types of harmful algae that give off different types of toxins in fresh and salt water; they have been recorded in all 50 states and around the globe. Varying water conditions mean varying blooms.

Harmful blooms were identified in the United States as early as the 1800s, but scientists believe they're becoming more prevalent where there are increasing amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen in the water with rising water temperatures, Dionysiou said.

Much of the increase in nutrients is thought to come from various sources of human pollution, including run-off from farms or faulty sewage systems.

"Algae use sunlight and nutrients, and proliferate," Dionysiou said. "They can become very extensive, (leaving) not much oxygen there.

"Lakes can become overwhelmed ... and fish will die," he continued, "there is a huge environmental consequence."

When the algae dies it can release toxins, Dionysiou said. High levels have claimed animal's lives, including dogs, in the United States. But in Brazil, 52 people died in 1996 due to a liver toxin, cyanobacteria, according to a report published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal supported in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Cyanobacteria is what has been detected in Harsha Lake, but not at dangerous levels by state standards. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency does not currently regulate toxic algae, but is expected to release a national health advisory in early 2015.

Local experts want to tackle Harsha Lake's bloom

But Harsha Lake isn't just used for recreation. The man-made reservoir, constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for flood control after the severe floods of the 1930s, supplies half of Clermont County's water.

Water quality data has been collected for years there by the Army Corps and Clermont County.

A group thinks they can use that data to figure out what might be done at Lake Harsha, said Melinda Kruyer, director of Confluence, an organization formed to enhance and grow the industry of clean water technology in Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky.

The partnership between representatives from federal, state and local governments, clean water organizations, water utilities, local universities and technology start-ups, formed out of an Algal Toxic Summit organized by Confluence in October.

By day's end, they set a goal to focus on Harsha Lake.

"Finding solutions (to toxic algae blooms) has been very challenging and the efforts have been very patchwork; some local, some regional, some national," Kruyer said. "The big moment at the summit for me was (when) ... the brilliant people in the room, who has not talked together before, looked around, and said, 'We have the people in this room that can solve this.' "

Dionysiou was there, and plans to participate. He and his students have been developing new technologies to deconstruct algal toxins.

Protecting Harsha Lake, "a place of comfort"

Paul Schmid, a local attorney who began his career as a special assistant to Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, assisted in crafting the environmental and natural resources policy in Ohio.

He also is a rower and has become a vocal advocate for Harsha Lake. Schmid is happy for this cooperative effort.

"If we could get a handle on it in East Fork, we may be able to help solve it in Grand Lake St. Marys and Lake Erie," Schmid said. "That really matters."

Until then, he's helping the lake prepare to host the USRowing competition, the biggest race the lake has hosted in seven years, he said.

The state has kicked in money for a new beach house, better camp sites, new docks, bleachers for spectators and washing stations.

"We will make people quite comfortable, whatever the HAB (harmful algal bloom) situation looks like," Schmid said.

Members of the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club, which hosts its races at the lake, agree they'd like to see the lake preserved, for them and the next generations, said Kenzie George, a senior at Loveland High School.

"(Harsha Lake) is kind of like a second home," George said. "A place of comfort."

Be alert! Avoid water that:

• • looks like spilled paint

• has surface scums, mats or films

• is discolored or has colored streaks

• has green globs floating below the surface

Avoid swallowing lake water.

- Signs posted at Harsha Lake