State won't issue algae standards for lake use
By JENNIFER WILSON
News editor
Although Marion County's recent water crisis has ended, one question remains: Is the Reservoir water safe?
Yes it's safe to drink — local water plants are filtering out any dangerous toxins.
But what about the raw water at the lake itself? Is that water safe to swim, fish, and boat in?
Marion County officials would like to get definite standards telling them when the water is safe and when it isn't.
The county asked for these standards — but the state said no.
In a letter dated Aug. 21, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said it can't establish a standard for cell count numbers. KDHE hasn't found any national or international standards to go by, it said.
Morgan Marler, senior water technician, thinks that a newly assembled task force should continue to pursue the standards.
"If KDHE is telling us that it is not their responsibility to establish parameters for recreational contact during an algae bloom, I think we have to accept that and move on," Marler said.
This task force might be used to study what other reservoirs have done regarding cell count standards.
"We have to look at the long-term solutions to the problem instead of a quick fix like treating the Reservoir with a copper compound," she said. "In the long run, we'll have a much healthier Reservoir."
The Marion County Health Department received the letter this week, and it shared the information with a host of individuals during a meeting Friday afternoon at the USDA conservation district office in Marion.
Numerous people attended the meeting, including representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, city administrators from Marion, Hillsboro, and Peabody, representatives from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and county health department officials.
This newly assembled "task force" might take the lead in studying what standards other reservoirs have set.
"We have to look at the long-term solutions to the problem instead of a quick-fix like treating the Reservoir with a copper-compound," Marler said. "In the long run we'll have a much healthier Reservoir."
KDHE's letter, sent by Karl Mueldener of the bureau of water and state epidemiologist Gianfranco Pezzino, was in response to an earlier letter sent by David Brazil. Brazil is the Marion County public health sanitarian.
What did Brazil's letter say? It referred to results from Reservoir water samples and also to studies done by national and international scientists.
Since the water crisis began in June, the City of Hillsboro has been sending water samples from the Reservoir to a lab in Missouri. The samples are collected every one or two weeks.
At this lab, scientists perform a "cell count," which determines how much algae exists in the water. Hillsboro workers have been testing water from several points at the Reservoir, including the intake valve at the dam and both swimming beaches.
These results show how much of each algae species exists in the water at that time. Samples are tested for three varieties: aphanizomenon, anabaena, and microcystis. The last two species produce the most toxins, which can attack the body's liver and nervous system.
On July 10, anabaena cell counts exceeded 44,000 cells per milliliter, and microcystis cell counts exceeded 16,254 cells/ml. This was at the Hillsboro Cove swimming beach.
At the water intake valve at the dam, anabaena numbers were nearly 122,000 cells/ml, and microcystis numbers were nearly 34 million cells/ml — an astronomical number.
Is that amount dangerous? Some scientists worldwide say yes.
Studies done at a Florida research lab showed that if a person spent an hour in water with a cell count of 5,000 cells/ml, he or she had "significantly increased" odds for eye irritations, rash, and gastrointestinal symptoms.
When blue-green algae outbreaks occurred in Oregon, state health officials said that people should avoid recreation contact with the water when cell counts hit 15,000 cells/ml.
And according to Morgan Marler, senior water technician for Hillsboro, the World Health Organization says that lake recreation should be stopped in two scenarios: first, if one species' cell count hits 15,000, and second, if the combined cell count of more than one species hits 50,000.
Using these WHO guidelines, the two Reservoir locations as noted above would not have been considered safe on July 10.
And just because the bloom is gone doesn't mean the threat is, according to David Brazil. Signs at the Reservoir should reflect this, he said.
"Since surface scum and odor are not always present during blue-green algae blooms and during toxin release, the signage
Brazil requested that the signs be changed, and that the state provide cell count standards "in writing."
"By setting a standard, even if temporary, the local monitoring of cell population can be used to provide the public with current information in regards to recreational water contact," Brazil wrote.
But in their letter dated 10 days later, KDHE refused to issue the standards.
Why not?
First, KDHE said that the toxins coming from blue-green algae are most dangerous when a human or animal drinks them — "passing of toxins through the skin to the body is thought to be improbable," the state said.
And if people were to drink the water accidentally, the risk wouldn't be any greater than consuming the bacteria that's commonly present in the water, they said.
Regarding the fact that dangerous algae can still be present in the water even if no blooms are visible, most reported illnesses occurred when there was a bloom, KDHE said.
"The common thread in most of the cases where negative health impacts have been linked to cyanobacteria was the visual evidence of a heavy cyanobacteria bloom," they said.
Also, KDHE officials said that no national or international standards have been set — standards that could be enforced by law.
"Granted, a few schemes have been proposed as guidance, but they fall short of being standards," KDHE said.
The letter concluded by saying local officials would make the decision as to close the lake to recreation.
"A bloom condition would need to be present to present any kind of significant concern," they said.
