North Dakota’s Department of Environmental Quality is issuing an update on the state’s locations of HABs, or harmful algal blooms.
Brian Houle is an environmental scientist with DEQ. He says the latest blue-green algae advisory has been issued for Lake Tschida in Grant County. Advisories had previously been issued for Devils Lake, Lake Brekken, and Lake Darling. Warnings are issued for Bowman-Haley Dam, South Golden Lake and Warsing Dam.
Houle says so far, this is a typical year for blue-green algae in North Dakota. He says the public is very cooperative in reporting what they find.
"I get calls all day, every day, about people concerned about their cattle or wanting to go swimming with their kids, and they're seeing this blue-green water, or crust on the water, and they're calling in asking questions about it. That's a big part of it, we get a big uptick in advisories and warnings because we take more samples, and we take more samples because we get more reports. And that's a great thing, because we're a small team and we rely on the public to submit those reports."
Blue-green algae should be avoided, as it can cause irritation to skin and illness if ingested. Reports can be made on the DEQ website.
