H&N Staff Reporter

August 26, 2010

   “I believe that in the next century, if we continue as we have been, that the Klamath River will effectively turn into an open sewer,” said Clayton Creager of the North Coast Regional Water Control Board. “In 50 years, we could be looking at a completely dead body of water.”

   For the past four years, Creager has controlled water quality at Iron Gate, Copco 1 and J.C. Boyle reservoirs.     

   He previously worked for 25 years as a consultant for a number of water quality agencies.

   Creager acknowledged that some people don’t consider the algae an issue and don’t agree with what he has to say. Water control board employees have been threatened for posting public health advisory signs about the presence of blue green algae, he said, and those signs were often torn down.

   Some Klamath Basin residents, he added, agree with that position and point to historical evidence indicating algae has always been in local waters and, therefore, isn’t a serious threat.

   But Creager maintains that scientific evidence points to the contrary.  

   Other experts agreed.

   Theo Dreher, head of the microbiology department at Oregon State University, said algae are prospering in Oregon waters this year in more significant quantities than in past years.

   “Prevalence of blooms, the length of the bloom period, the number of affected lakes all seem to be increasing,” he said. “Partly there’s more awareness, but it has been acknowledged that two effects are occurring: there are increasing human activities that lead to nutrient runoff to drive bloom growth, and global climate change can increase blooms, especially because of warmer temperatures and less rain that creates more still water.”

   Chauncey Anderson, a hydrologist with U.S. Geological Survey, said algae blooms pose a threat to aquatic ecosystems because their consumption of oxygen significantly impacts levels of dissolved oxygen in water bodies.

   This effect is two-fold, he said.

   Algae respiration

   When healthy, algae produce oxygen through photosynthesis during daylight hours, but at night the algae consume oxygen. When they bloom, that nighttime oxygen consumption becomes significant.

   When algae die, known as a crash, they are consumed by bacteria that in turn create an additional oxygen demand.

   Lower levels of dissolved oxygen in water means less   oxygen for other forms of marine life, particularly fish, and, consequently, it leads to bodies of water that are less healthy, Anderson said.

   In addition, the toxins produced by blue-green algae are harmful to fish.

   Ongoing studies by OSU’s Center for Fish Disease Research have found Klamath River fish populations have declined, fish disease incidence is severe, the frequency of fish kills has increased and water conditions threaten the survival of Klamath’s salmon populations.  

   “There’s a lot of research still being done on the matter, but these findings (by the Center for Fish Disease Research) take into account the best available science,” Creager said.

   “We do know that fish in the area have toxins from blue-green algae in their livers.”  

   Health advisories can hurt business   

   FISH LAKE — The sign posted at Fish Lake earlier this month warned visitors to stay away from the water — no boating, swimming or fishing.

   For the first time in recorded history, levels of blue-green algae exceeded the amount allowable under public health standards, and a health advisory was issued for the lake.

   Blue-green algae can create toxins that are harmful to humans, fish and animals.    

   That meant people were advised for health reasons not to recreate in popular Fish Lake off Highway 140 west of Klamath Falls. The algae, health officials said, were toxic, and blooming at levels that could make people and animals ill.

   The advisory was lifted two weeks later, but it had a dramatic impact on business for a week or so, said Debbi Blodgett, who has owned and operated Fish Lake Resort with her husband, Jim, for the last eight years.

   Oregon’s lakes and rivers are monitored for toxic levels of algae by the state Public Health Department’s Harmful Algae Bloom Surveillance program. The program, created in 2009, has issued 12 health advisories so far this summer.  

   Last week, the state also issued a toxic algae advisory for Gerber Reservoir, a popular recreational area 45 miles east of Klamath Falls.

   Algal samples taken from the south side of Gerber Reservoir found a cell count of nearly 3 million per milliliter of aphanizonmenon, a species of algae that occasionally produces toxins, and a cell count of 440,000 per milliliter of microcystis, a species that always produces toxins.

   The effects of contact

   The most common symptom of toxic algae exposure is skin irritation and rash, but people also can develop eye and throat irritation, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and flu-like symptoms,   according to Bonnie Widerburg, public health educator for the state’s Harmful Algae Bloom Surveillance program.

   Contact with toxins usually occurs during activities   such as swimming, drinking affected water, inhaling water droplets, touching algae scum or fishing in affected waters.

   Animals are more susceptible to the toxins because they are less likely to be put off by the algae’s appearance, and have been known to die if exposure is prolonged, Widerburg said.

   In 2009, seven human illnesses suspected to be caused by toxic algae in Oregon were reported. None were fatal. There was one confirmed animal illness and death and one probable animal illness.  

   Widerburg thinks many illnesses likely were unreported, due to a lack of awareness and misdiagnoses.

   “I imagine there are lots of people and animals who never get diagnosed or don’t even link their illness to algae,” she said.

   Identifying blooms

   Although it is nearly impossible to determine visually whether algae are producing toxins, algae that are thick, green in color, form scum on the water’s surface and emit a foul odor should be avoided, scientists agreed.  

   “If it (the algae) looks like grass clippings in the water, then it’s usually fine, as the chances of it being a toxin-producer are greatly reduced,” said Chauncey Anderson, a hydrologist with U.S. Geological Survey. “If the algae has a thick consistency, looks like spilt paint or pea soup, or starts to take on a turquoise blue color, avoid it. Algae that looks like that does not necessarily translate into toxins but it might.”  

   Treatment wetland may be a solution - Filters, clay may also reduce nutrient loads

   “Tackling this issue is going to be a lengthy process, but I think the tide is turning and most people are realizing how important it is to deal with this issue,” Creager said. “However, people   also need to be aware that if we want a lake and river that are viable, a lake that people can sail on comfortably in the summer, we are going to need to make an investment in our water quality.”

   Iron Gate and Copco 1 reservoirs harbor algae   

   Earlier this month, Northern California water officials issued a warning that levels of toxic blue-green algae at reservoirs behind the Iron Gate and Copco 1 dams exceeded the 100,000 cells per milliliter sample maximum allowed by California public health rules.

   PacifiCorp, which tests the reservoirs weekly, found that a sample from the Iron Gate reservoir had eight times the allowed maximum while another had nearly three times the maximum.

   At the Copco 1 reservoir, one sample found blue-green algae levels to be three times the allowable maximum.

   Every year since 2004, levels of bluegreen algae at the reservoirs have exceeded   the maximum allowable cell count, according to Clayton Creager of the California North Coast Regional Water Control Board.

   Jake Kann, an aquatic ecologist who has studied the water in the Klamath Basin for a number of years, said the concentration of the blue-green algae at the reservoirs is among the highest in the world.

   He added that levels of blue-green algae at the reservoirs are much higher than the water bodies in Oregon flow into them.

   “The reservoirs have higher levels of nitrogen than Upper Klamath Lake, for example, and that means more algae, and harmful algae, grows there,” he said.

   Bloom cycles   

   Blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, are a form of bacteria that thrives in water — particularly warm, still and nutrientloaded water — and wet areas.

   Many of the Klamath Basin’s lakes and rivers have algae growing in them year-round, but during the heat of summer, rapid increases or accumulations of the algae population, also known as algal blooms, often occur.  

   Blue-green algae blooms produce toxins that can be harmful to aquatic ecosystems as well as humans and animals.

   These blooms can produce different types of toxins, the most significant of which are neurotoxins produced by an algae species called anabaena and liver toxins produced by a species called microcystis, said Theo Dreher, head of Oregon State University’s microbiology department.

   Basin conditions   

   Although rivers and lakes across the country are affected by high algae density, water in the Klamath Basin has a number of predispositions that favor algae growth, experts say.

   The Basin’s volcanic soil leads to high levels of phosphorous in local waters. These waters also have high levels of nitrogen due in part to agriculture and fertilizers, ranching and livestock grazing, and the diking and draining of wetlands, according to Chauncey Anderson, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.  

   “High levels of nitrogen in water are a common byproduct of the human footprint,” he said.

   Both phosphorus and nitrogen are nutrients for algae, and an abundance of these in water promotes algae growth.

   “When a large body of still water has both significant quantities of phosphorous and nitrogen, algal blooms are inevitably going to happen,” Anderson said.

   Algae, which thrive when exposed to sunlight in large areas of still water, are most dense in the late summer months.