Blue Lake which has had 3 Solar Bee units installed since 2007 recently had a cyanobacteria bloom that caused a DHS toxin warning. A new property owner on the lake coincidentally called us thinking we had SolarBees on Devils Lake and he wanted to talk about management strategies. Through our conversation it mentioned that in fact a few weeks prior the lake did turn really green, as if green oil had been spilt. He said that it he went waterskiing since, and that it had cleared up. He estimated that it lasted approximately 2 weeks at most. I also solicited information from Joe Eilers at SolarBee who sent this email reply:
Basically, we think the bloom was initiated by a major influx of high- P water. Blue Lake has no surface inlets and loses water from evaporation through the summer. The homeowners like to have Metro request inputs of water from their back-up production wells near the lake. Around the end of August they added about 8% of the lake volume with groundwater containing about 90 ug/L PO4. That coincided with the Anabaena getting going about 10 days later. The in Sept, the lake turned over, releasing another pulse of high-P water. Anyway, we are trying to get the water quality data from Metro so we can better determine the timelines and the lake response. As soon as we have that, I’ll dive into the data and try to sort things out. Joe
Jack Strayer initiated contact with Elaine Stewart, of METRO regarding Blue Lake. She is willing to send their findings once they complete them. I have had two phone attempts at getting a preview of such findings, and anticipate a call back.
Devils Lake Navigator 