Ashtabula County appears thus far to have escaped the blue-green algae blooms afflicting inland lakes at numerous state parks in Ohio this summer.
Ashtabula County Health Commissioner Ray Saporito said his department has not received any reports of the blooms, which can produce toxins harmful to both humans and animals.
Local health departments typically work with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio Department of Natural Resources and Ohio Department to Health to identify suspected blooms and issue advisories to the public, Saporito said.
Advisories are issued on three levels: no contact, toxin and bloom.
Grand Lake St. Marys and Blue Rock State Park are under the no-contact advisory, which urges users to avoid any contact with, as well as the ingestion of, lake water. The advisory extends to launching watercraft on the lakes.
Burr Oak State Park is under a toxin advisory, which suggests avoiding contact with any algae or direct contact with the water.
Bloom advisories urge users to avoid contact with any algae and are in place for Deer Creek State Park, Dillon State Park, East Harbor State Park (Lake Erie), Lake Hope, Lake Loramie, West Branch State Park, Maumee Bay State Park (Lake Erie), Jackson Lake State Park and the golf-course pond at Shawnee State Park.
Algal toxins arising from the blooms include microcystin, anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin and saxitoxin, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Saporito said the toxins can cause gastrointestinal illness if ingested and contact dermatitis.
Shallow water, hot weather and high nutrient load in the lake encourage the blue-green algae blooms. The Western Basin of Lake Erie is more susceptible to the toxic blooms because that part of the lake is much shallower than the lake’s Eastern Basin.
Saporito said that while there are blooms of duckweed on area ponds, that is not the same as the blue-green algae, which can give rise to the toxins in the water.
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