Cyanotoxins

[nDub]

So I live in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range, about thirty mile north (as the crow flies) of Yosemite. The water my local Utilities District gets is fairly good quality but they have a small storage reservoir near the water treatment plant that is pretty gross. Its more like a shallow pond complete with algae blooms every summer.

Anyway I participated in a SWRCB brown bag on Freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms yesturday (see link).
http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2014-08/documents/cyanobacteria_factsheet.pdf

Now the EPA hasn't set any rules for contaminate levels and California hasn't either (they tend to follow the EPA) so I'm pretty sure the Utility company isn't monitoring for it. Unfortunately this isn't something that is easily treated, hard to filter out and can't boil it out.

Anybody else keeping tabs on this?

I also watched an AWWA webinar on Naegleria fowleri (brain eating) earlier this week so that got me thinking too. Fortunately this amoeba is easily treated with free chlorine and I'm close enough to the water plant that I don't have to worry about losing chlorine residual.

Nice things to think about as I drink my tap water or brew with it.

 

[BentBrewer]

Eh, you're probably getting plenty of cyanide from all the old gold mine runoff anyway. Why worry?

 

[nDub]

Eh, you're probably getting plenty of cyanide from all the old gold mine runoff anyway. Why worry?

Fortunately they test for that, at least in the drinking water.

A crazy thing around here is swimming in a creek and finding a glob of mercury at the bottom, nice and shiny.

 

[Twins_Dad]

nDub,
I work for the Regional Water Board attended the same SWRCB webinar last week. I have also been working closely with USBR and the State Water Contractors on some nutrient issues in the State Water Project (the water SoCal gets from the NorCal) and in the Delta. It seems that the Microcystins are becoming a problem through out the Central Valley as well.

 

[BentBrewer]

A crazy thing around here is swimming in a creek and finding a glob of mercury at the bottom, nice and shiny.

Hey, that's worth money too!

 

[nDub]

nDub,
... It seems that the Microcystins are becoming a problem through out the Central Valley as well.

You say "becoming". Do you think mycrocystins are new, or have we just now been able to detect it? Like DBPs, we have been disinfecting our water for 150 years but didn't worry (know) about them until we could detect them.

I wonder about this stuff because I remember swimming/fishing/drinking some pretty questionable water growing up. I guess I know better now.

 

[Twins_Dad]

I say "becoming" because it appears that the problem has been exasperated by the current drought conditions (warm and slow moving water, and excess nutrients). The microcystis algae have always been around but not usually in numbers that were ever really a concern. The idea that certain algae in drinking water can be toxic is not new, it has been known for hundreds of years. However, the WHO did not even evaluate cyanobacterial toxins until the late 1990s. Like you mentioned, I think microcystins are in the spotlight now because the conditions exist that allow this algae to colonize in huge numbers, and in bodies of water that were never a problem in the past are now harboring large colonies of algae.

Like you, I remember riding my bike down to the local swimming/fishing hole and coming home with green swimming trunks. No mercury though...... I guess that is more of a gold country problem. You might report that to the SWRCB if you feel the need.

 

[nDub]

I say "becoming" because it appears that the problem has been exasperated by the current drought conditions (warm and slow moving water, and excess nutrients). The microcystis algae have always been around but not usually in numbers that were ever really a concern.

True, we are in a drought right now but there have been droughts before. I'd hazard a guess that microsystis alagae have been a problem in the past but the effects were attributed to something detectable or definable.

Anyhow in my last comment I was just reflecting on the idea that these problems seem "new" only because we are now aware enough to be alarmed. I know this isn't a novel idea but I think it puts prospective on what we do.

In my experience, in this industry, there is always a crisis du jour.

On another note, is anybody planning on going to the 2016 CA-NV AWWA Spring Conference in Sacramento? Maybe I'll start new thread. It'd be fun to go out with some homebrewers and check out the Sac craft brew scene.

 

[Twins_Dad]

Anyhow in my last comment I was just reflecting on the idea that these problems seem "new" only because we are now aware enough to be alarmed. I know this isn't a novel idea but I think it puts prospective on what we do.

In my experience, in this industry, there is always a crisis du jour.

.

I think this about sums it up.

I live and work in the greater Sacramento area but I don't think I will be attending the AWWA Conf.