The state is warning some swimmers to steer clear of the Maumee Bay State Park beach on Lake Erie after a water sample turned up toxic algae.This is the first algae warning this year at Lake Erie.
“We continue to monitor (the water) and post signs to make sure the public knows and can make wise decisions,” said Bethany McCorkle, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.Similar warnings have been posted at Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio and at three beaches at Buckeye Lake in central Ohio.
Water tests at the Lake Erie beach area found a liver toxin produced by the algae at a concentration strong enough to trigger a warning that swimming and wading are not recommended for older people, young children and those with weak immune systems.
The toxins in the water must fall below a certain threshold for two weeks before the advisory can be lifted, McCorkle said.
Toxic algae, also called cyanobacteria, are common in most Ohio lakes but grow thick in water polluted with phosphorus from manure, fertilizers and sewage that rain washes into nearby streams. The liver and nerve toxins the algae produce can sicken swimmers and kill pets.
Near-drought conditions that created a largely dry spring and summer dramatically cut fertilizer runoff from farms this year.
That prompted researchers to predict that this summer’s toxic algae would be only about a 10th the size of the record “bloom” that blanketed 1,600 square miles of Erie’s western basin last year.
That bloom triggered algae health warnings at Maumee Bay State Park in August 2011.
Sandy Bihn, director of the Toledo-based Lake Erie Waterkeeper advocacy group, said she first learned of the algae at Maumee Bay State Park last weekend when she got a call from a woman at the beach walking her dog.
She said she went out and took photographs of the algae on Sunday and notified state officials.
“When you went to the shore, it was washing in a putrid green,” Bihn said.
Pamela Engel is a fellow in Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse News Bureau.