LAKEPORT >> After raising alarms about increasingly dire blooms of cyanobacteria an advocate for cleaning up Clear Lake, drafted like-minded others who were inspired to contribute to the lake’s cleanup as county residents got a clearer picture of the escalating degradation of the lake’s environment at the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
Sarah Ryan is an environmental director for the Big Valley Rancheria that sits on Clear Lake’s western shore. She is a pioneer researcher investigating the cyanobacteria challenging Clear Lake dating back to 2014 when several tribal members were apprised of health risks. A problem arose when a resident’s dog died soon after drinking water from Clear Lake, although subsequently, it could not be confirmed it was the lake’s water.
Along with Karola Kennedy environmental director of the Elem Indian Tribe a plan was developed. Samples gathered from a water intake receptacle showed 17,000 micrograms per liter of water produced by the microcystins in waters where people swim and boat. California suggested warning signs at beaches when levels reach 0.8 micrograms per liter. Also appearing with Ryan was Craig Weatherbee, director of the Lake County Environmental Health. Weatherbee praised Ryan and her community for without their efforts, the county would be blind to the hazards posed by the cyanobacteria. “Our lake is amazing and it is a living creature and like any living creature, it has good and bad days,” he said. “Sometimes it wakes up with its hair in a tangle so, it’s going to take a little more time (to mitigate).”
Born out of those alarming days of 2014 was the Cyanobacteria Task Force. Thankfully because of the hard work by the founders doing research, funding, signage, communications and collaboration, it perpetuated a sustained flow of work to improve the lake and by 2018 the Cyanobacteria Working Group evolved and had the encouragement of the Rancheria’s Tribal Council. Because of their dedication, there is a well-educated online group, who have learned not to be frightened of the cyanotoxins yet need to be aware of potential risks and face it head on and that is what the working group does by releasing data.
“I’m sure the Water Resources Department and Environmental Health Department, stay on task to provide the latest data about cyanobacteria,” said Ryan. “Cyanobacteria produces oxygen and some are capable of producing toxins, which rise up in the sunlight to eat much of (the lake’s) nutrients, then go back down to the bottom of the lake. But it’s when there is too much and there’s a bloom and it’s like pea soup, you have toxins, but it is not something eaten by fish and (we) cannot be sure it’s something that can be taken care of in the food web.”
So the problem is when the lake has an overgrowth, what is called an algal bloom, though it is not an algae. When it dies it returns to the bottom of the lake where it becomes food for new cyanobacteria, which seeds itself, so it keeps regenerating. “The problem with the algal bloom is when there is an overgrowth,” Ryan said. “It depends on which cyanobacteria is growing. They have different looks and different toxins and can produce a combination of toxins. And the only way to tell is look under the microscope and the only way to know if it has toxins is to send it to a lab.”
Ryan noted cyanobacteria is like a water balloon. If one breaks the cell membrane with an algaecide, or it dies some other way, the toxins spill out of the water, which is why the various water systems relying on Clearlake for drinking water must go through various filtration processes before doing chlorination, because chlorination will break the cells and then cleanup teams must deal with toxins which are a lot smaller and harder to get out of the lake..
Weatherbee pointed out their ongoing research is communicated among many stakeholder partners from the state level bureaucrats down to local communities spread throughout the county. “The work is not being done just being done in an echo chamber,” he said. “The work is shared with the state and they come back and ask how these meetings are being put together…I make sure everyone understands the science, and the science is used to make better decisions and disbursed more widely throughout the counties.”
High toxic levels have appeared in other counties, any with a shoreline with a fair degree of development along a water body. Ryan pointed to a map of the Upper Klamath Lake with extensive algal blooms that is visible by satellite. The state has an online map, mywaterquality.ca.gov is where one can look at all the more substantial blooms. Different colored dots indicate the level of the problem. Green indicates; no toxin level that is problematic. Yellow means caution, orange is a warning, and red is danger. So, if the map signals a danger level, it is best to be cautious and not to go boating in the area or eat fish that congregate there.
Weatherbee said one of the keys is transparency and warning people when there is a hazard present. “We have to be mindful of the fact we are a county with economic interests; we have businesses dedicated to how Clear Lake is functioning, and how it is used or recreated on,” he said. “We must make sure we are giving appropriate information, and by appropriate, we have a number we can hang our hat on and say, this is dangerous or this is a caution. And we make sure the information is understandable and (that people) know where to find it.”
Ryan cautioned sometimes people like to blame the Lake. But it can also be a potato salad someone brought to enjoy while on the lake. Careful testing is required before anyone can confirm what the source of illness may have emerged.
