CLEARLAKE OAKS ? George Forni, owner of Aquatic Environments, Inc. (AEI) is not giving up in attempt to find a solution to the algae problem plaguing residents in the Clearlake Oaks Keys area.
Forni and his crew have engaged in several aquatic demonstrations throughout the past few weeks. On Tuesday, they tested a different technique in the channels at the eastern end of the Keys.
“This is one of the most complicated situations I”ve seen,” Forni said. “The problem is the algae is reproducing too quickly.”
AEI conducted a demonstration in the Keys on Aug. 20 using its Aquamog mechanical restoration equipment. The Aquamog is a rather hefty, barge-like piece of equipment with a boom affixed to one end and spray/release system on the other. The Aquamog can be used with several different attachments dependent upon the situation.
On Aug. 20, a technique tried that ideally would have projected bio matter collected through the Aquamog system over the bank onto property adjacent to the canal. Carolyn Ruttan, Lake County Water Resources program coordinator said the technique was discontinued because the bio matter wasn”t quite making it up over the bank.
On Tuesday, Forni and his crew tried something different. This go round they used a collection boom, a surface-floating device that basically skims the algae matter and moves it.
“The idea of this technique is to push the bio matter out into the open part of the lake where we can break it up easier or move it to the shoreline for excavation,” Forni said. “This will take a lot of time, but we”re moving a lot more matter than what we could with just a harvester.”
Forni said it would probably take about a week to clear the entire Keys area.
Forni has been troubleshooting the lake, conducting demonstrations, at no charge, in various locations on the lake. He said solutions will vary as situations differ throughout the lake. “We”re just sitting here throwing out ideas,” he said. “We are trying different ideas to see if we can come up with techniques that will work in various locations of the lake.”
Forni said that the primary problem hindering algae mitigation efforts this season is a late start in addressing the situation. “We”re really far behind and we”re just playing catch up. You”re really putting a band-aid on something that”s already occurred,” he said. “Down the road this will go away but you have to be proactive about it.”
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
