Ahead of the season’s first long weekend, North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality is reminding residents that warmer weather can contribute to the growth of blue-green algae.
Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, can occur in lakes and other bodies of water. It’s typically detected in a few locations in the state each year.
Brian Houle is an environmental scientist with DEQ. He says it hasn’t been warm enough yet this year for much blue-green algae to form just yet – but it has been detected in North Dakota in mid-May before.
"They're green in color typically, but sometimes they can be kind of a bluish color. A lot of times it looks like green spilled paint. And sometimes it can look like little grass clippings in the water column. I often tell people, take a stick and run it through the water. If something comes out on the stick, it's probably not a harmful algal bloom. These are tiny, little bacteria in the water column. They don't have a lot of structure."
Blue-green algae can cause adverse health effects in children, pets and livestock. Houle says swimming in water with HABs is discouraged. Residents can contact DEQ to report any sightings of blue-green algae.
