news story / By Ryan Burns

A Deadly Scum

Blue-green algal blooms can form as scum, foam or floating mats — usually in the hue advertised, though they can also look white or brown. Freshwater blooms can contain neurotoxins, which affect the nervous system (this is likely what killed Joey), hepatotoxins, which attack the liver, and other dangerous chemicals. With people, it can cause eye irritation, skin rash, vomiting, diarrhea and cold- and flu-like symptoms — especially among children. Lake County officials this summer have received reports of skin rashes apparently caused by cyanobacteria in Clear Lake.

Local health officials have posted warnings along affected rivers and issued press releases urging people and their pets to avoid water with visible blooms. Fish, they warn, should be gutted, then rinsed in tap water before consumption. They also suggest ways to prevent the algal blooms from forming in the first place, like reducing our use of fertilizers and pesticides, making sure our septic systems don’t leak and encouraging native plant growth around riverbanks and shorelines — all of which can reduce the nutrients that help the toxic slime spawn.

Cyanobacteria aren’t entirely evil. In fact, we wouldn’t exist without them, and neither would dogs or plants or any of the things we tend to recognize as living. They’re called the “architects of Earth’s atmosphere” by the Berkeley Natural History Museum because, over billions of years, they produced the oxygen that allowed life on our planet to evolve into so many different forms. And it’s not always poisonous. The Aztecs regularly ate one variety of the stuff (cyanobacterium Spirulina), and another healthful type, Aphanizomenon Flos-Aquae (AFA), grows abundantly in the Klamath River. (But so does the toxic stuff, so avoid it in its natural state.) When processed into powder or pills, AFA, which is high in protein, vitamins and essential fatty acids, is consumed as a health supplement.

But the toxic species are indeed bad news, and Jennifer Johnston wants to help other pets avoid Joey’s fate. She’d read local media reports saying the blooms are a threat, but she feels the warnings should be stronger. “It’s not a threat; it’s a death sentence if they get it,” she said.

For more information on cyanobacteria, call the county Public Health office at (707) 442-6215 or (800) 963-9241.

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