To date, the state has identified 10 lakes, not including a golf course pond at Shawnee State Park, as being under algae bloom advisories.
BSA Environmental Services in Beachwood, Ohio, has identified the organism in the 1,277-acre Deer Creek Lake as Planktothrix, a cyanobacteria that can produce toxins. Additional samples were taken at Deer Creek. The results will be reported when they become available, ODNR said.
Summary of advisories:
No Contact Advisory: Avoid any and all contact with and ingestion of the lake water. This includes launching watercraft on the lakes.
- Grand Lake St. Marys
- Blue Rock State Park
Toxin Advisory: Avoid contact with any algae and direct contact with water.
- Burr Oak State Park
Bloom Advisory: Cautionary advisory to avoid contact with any algae.
- Deer Creek State Park
- Dillon State Park
- East Harbor State Park (Lake Erie bloom)
- Lake Hope
- Lake Loramie
- West Branch State Park
- Shawnee State Park (golf course pond)
- Maumee Bay State Park (Lake Erie bloom)
More information about what each advisory means can be found on ODNR's website at ohiodnr.com/tabid/22957/Default.aspx
Because toxin levels can fluctuate, the state will continue sampling from the lakes.
Advisories will remain in effect until there have been two consecutive weeks of non-detection for anatoxin-a, saxitoxin and cylindrospermopsin and two consecutive weeks of microcystin below 20 ppb (set by the World Health Organization as the upper end of the moderate-risk range for contact with microcystin). There are no WHO standards for the other toxins.
Additional information and data on harmful algal blooms is available online at www.epa.ohio.gov/dsw/HAB.aspx or www.odh.ohio.gov/features/odhfeatures/algalblooms.aspx.
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