Whether tempted to dip your toe or cannonball into a pond, lake or other waterbody this summer, check the color of the water first.

Elevated temperatures, increased sunlight, low or no water flow, and increased nutrient loads create a recipe for harmful algal blooms, which can be toxic to humans, pets and aquatic organisms.

The N.C. Division of Water Resources is reminding people to avoid contact with discolored water, which could indicate the presence of an algal bloom. 

While algae naturally occur in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions can cause rapid algal cell growth, which leads to blooms, according to the division.

“You cannot tell for sure by looking at a bloom whether it is harmful or not,” according to a division release.

Algal blooms may be reported to the nearest state Department of Environmental Quality regional office or via an online report. Reported algal bloom events may be viewed at the division’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.  

DEQ may collect water samples for further testing to an algae lab for analysis based on preliminary reports received through the reporting tool if an investigation is needed and resources are available.

To help staff, please provide detailed reports with a high-quality photo, contact information and a description of the bloom. 

The public should steer clear from coming in contact with large accumulations of algae and children and pets should be prevented from swimming or ingesting water water in an algal bloom.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health suggests safeguarding against algal blooms through the following steps:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae. 
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present. 
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom. 
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately. 
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

For tips on water safety, heat protection and food safety visit the health and human service’s website.

State health and water quality officials urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water on the Chowan River between Arrowhead Beach in Chowan County and the Occano community in Bertie County.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources notified the public Thursday about the algal blooms that have lingered in the area since Oct. 6.

The bloom has been observed in the Chowan River at its confluence with Salmon Creek near Occano, near Whites Beach, and at the Arrowhead Beach boat launch.

Cyanobacterial blooms usually appear bright green, but when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue. Decaying algae may produce a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area. Algal blooms tend to move due to wind and wave action.

The division determined the blooms are dominated by species of Dolichospermum, or as Anabaena, and Microcystis, which belong to the algal group cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

“Dolichospermum and Microcystis can produce microcystin, an algal toxin that may cause adverse health effects in humans and pets,” division states.

Testing shows that the three sites exceed public health advisory levels. Results are on the division’s Algal Bloom Dashboard.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health recommends avoiding contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

The state health department suggests the following steps:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored, or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online. To view reported algal bloom events, visit the state Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

Officials also remind the public to take precautions as other microorganisms or pollution may be present in waterbodies that can lead to recreational water illness, see https://epi.dph.ncdhhs.gov/cd/water/prevent.html.

North Carolina Division of Water Resources officials are reminding residents to steer clear of water that looks discolored because it could be an algal bloom.

Water that looks bright green, blue, discolored or scummy could indicate the presence of an algal bloom.

Certain types of algal blooms can create toxins harmful to humans, pets and aquatic organisms. Harmful algal blooms are indistinguishable from nonharmful blooms by mere sight.

The state Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health encourages people to avoid contact with large algae accumulations. Children and pets should be prevented from swimming in or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

If you do come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly. If your child becomes ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, get medical care immediately.

Pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom should be rinsed off. Seek veterinary care immediately if your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river.

Blooms should be reported to your nearest Department of Environmental Quality regional office or online.

Algal bloom events that are reported to the state are available on the Division of Water Resource’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

Although algae naturally occur in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions, including increased nutrients, elevated temperatures, increased sunlight and low or no water flow, can prompt rapid algal cell growth that causes algal blooms.

Wind and wave action can move blooms and decaying algae may create a strong, foul odor.

RALEIGH — A federal court decision issued Wednesday blocks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from using a potentially harmful algaecide at Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge, a compound that environmental groups argued would endanger the waterfowl the refuge is supposed to protect.

Refuge officials had issued a notification in 2023 that it planned to do a trial application of chemical pellets within the next two years to test their effects on persistent blooms of blue-green algae on the 40,000-acre Lake Mattamuskeet, the state’s largest natural freshwater lake.

But environmental groups were concerned that the product, according to its label, could be toxic to birds. 

In response, the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, filed a lawsuit, asking for a preliminary injunction to stop the refuge’s plan. The agency agreed during a subsequent court hearing to suspend its plan until April 2025, and a final hearing was held in May.

Wednesday’s order by U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle for the Eastern District of North Carolina Eastern Division can be appealed within 60 days,  Ramona McGee, senior attorney and leader of the Wildlife Program at the Law Center, told Coastal Review Wednesday.

“The Service is currently evaluating the court’s order,” a U.S. Department of Interior spokesperson said in an email sent Wednesday afternoon, responding to a request from Coastal Review for comment on the decision.

The email also addressed a question about the number of staff at the refuge.

“Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Coastal North Carolina National Wildlife Refuges Complex, which includes refuges from Cedar Island to Currituck. As such, Lake Mattamuskeet’s management is through a complex approach — with staff throughout the complex assisting and leading activities.”

As McGee explained, the Southern Environmental Law Center argued successfully that the Fish and Wildlife Service had violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to evaluate and disclose the potential impacts of the algaecide.

“This experiment was merely a distraction,” McGee said in an interview. “It was never designed to address those root causes of the lake’s water quality problems. Instead, this was a project that was explicitly experimental and alarmingly, was using a product that can kill and harm birds.”

The refuge had proposed to use Lake Guard Oxy, a sodium percarbonate-based algaecide used by Pittsburgh-based contractor BlueGreen Water Technologies, on about 600 acres of several isolated areas around the perimeter of Lake Mattamuskeet.

In recent years, the lake has been plagued during warm months with algal blooms that have become populated with cyanobacteria, which can be harmful to people and animals.

The proposed treatment, according to the agency, was intended to reduce the toxic algae enough to allow the beneficial phytoplankton to be reestablished. In the process, the refuge said, it could help restore water clarity in the lake.

In 2001, the North Carolina General Assembly provided $5 million toward the pilot study.

Refuge officials also said that, once dissolved, the pellets were safe for birds. Steps would be taken, the officials added, to prevent their exposure to undissolved pellets.

But rather than a singular problem, the algae is a symptom of an unhealthy ecosystem in the lake that has excessive nutrient levels and near complete loss of submerged aquatic vegetation, the environmental groups said.

Situated in the center of rural mainland Hyde County, the lake, which is 6 miles wide, 18 miles long and an average of 2 feet deep, has suffered severe water quality degradation over recent decades. The refuge totals about 50,000 acres and still attracts thousands of wintering tundra swan and other migratory waterbirds, as well as numerous species of resident duck.

In 2016, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources listed the lake as having impaired waters, based on high alkalinity and levels of chlorophyll-a, both indicators for cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms that produce cyanotoxins.

An effort led by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, which publishes Coastal Review, created a collective and holistic approach to restoring the lake, with the Lake Mattamuskeet Watershed Restoration Plan being released in 2018. In the years since, the strategies in plan, which include drainage improvements and restoration of the submerged grasses, have been implemented as time, funding and staffing have allowed.  

“We hope that the Fish and Wildlife Service refocuses on the long-term solutions that will address the root causes of Lake Mattamuskeet’s water quality problems” McGee said.

Considering anecdotal reports about staff cuts at wildlife refuges — none have been confirmed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — McGee said it makes the court decision even more timely in its benefit to the birds. As part of its proposal to do the pilot treatment, the refuge had promised that staff would shoo, or haze, the birds away from any undissolved pellets that could harm them. 

“I think it would have been very concerning for the Fish and Wildlife Service to proceed with a risky experiment like this when it did not have adequate staff to monitor and manage the project,” she said.

If the water color looks a little off, don’t get in it.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources is reminding the public to steer clear of discolored water as we usher in summer and the warmer temperatures the season will undoubtedly bring.

Discolored would could be an indication of the presence of an algal bloom, certain types of which can create toxins harmful to humans, pets and aquatic organisms.

Such harmful algal blooms are indistinguishable from nonharmful blooms by mere sight. Blooms should be reported to your nearest DEQ regional office or online.

The state Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health encourages people to avoid contact with large algae accumulations. Children and pets should be prevented from swimming in or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

If you do come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.

If your child becomes ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, get medical care immediately.

Pets that may have come into contact with a bloom should be rinsed off with clean water. Pets that appear to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river should receive immediate veterinary care.

Additional information on the potential health effects from algal blooms is available on the state health department’s website.

Agal blooms can have the appearance of spilled paint on a water’s surface, where colors may be bright green, red, brown or blue. They can also look like mats, or dense, macroscopic growths floating on the water surface, and can appear as discoloration throughout the water column.

Although algae naturally occur in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions, including increased nutrients, elevated temperatures, increased sunlight and low or no water flow, can prompt rapid algal cell growth that causes algal blooms.

Wind and wave action can move blooms and decaying algae may create a strong, foul odor.

Algal bloom events that have been reported may be viewed at the Division of Water Resources’ Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard. Additional information about algal blooms is available on the division website.

The public is also reminded to take precautions to avoid recreational water illness caused by other microorganisms or pollution in waterbodies.

An interdisciplinary team working to understand harmful algal blooms and the resulting human health risks has organized a chance for those working in coastal issues to meet others with the same focus.

North Carolina Center for Coastal Algae, People, and the Environment, or NC-CAPE, has scheduled “Connecting The Coast: Networking and Resource Swap” for noon to 4 p.m. April 11, at the Estuarium on the Pamlico River in Washington.

N.C. State University-based NC-CAPE is inviting community leaders, researchers, and organizations working on coastal issues to the Estuarium to discuss key issues affecting coastal communities, particularly harmful algal blooms, and to foster collaboration.

“This event offers an exciting opportunity to build connections, share resources, and discuss ways to strengthen our collective efforts in managing harmful algae blooms and other environmental challenges along North Carolina’s coast,” organizers said.

The Estuarium features more than 200 exhibits on estuaries and coastal rivers and offers special programs on natural and cultural heritage, aquariums with crabs and other estuarine life, art, interactive displays, artifacts from life on the Pamlico River, and information on hurricanes and sea level rise.

Email community engagement coordinator for NC-Cape, Vivian Taylor, at smtayl27@ncsu.edu for more information.

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality officials are cautioning people to stay away from discolored water as summer temperatures set in this holiday weekend.

As of last Tuesday, the department’s Division of Water Quality had received reports of 11 confirmed or suspected algal blooms, two of which contained cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae.

Cyanobacteria are found in freshwater, estuarine and marine waters, and while they are important to aquatic ecosystems, some are able to produce cyanotoxins. These highly potent toxins can pose a host of health risks including abdominal, neurological and skin issues for people, pets and aquatic species.

While algae occur naturally in all waterbodies, environmental conditions such as an increase in nutrients, higher temperatures, increased sunlight and low to no water flow can spur rapid algal cell growth called blooms.

A person cannot tell by looking at a bloom whether or not it is harmful.

Blooms may look like surface scum, or spilled paint across the top of water, in colors from bright green, red, brown or blue; dense, macroscopic growths floating on the water surface; or discoloration throughout the water. They are often moved by wind and waves and, when decaying, may stink.

Blooms may be reported to the nearest Department of Environmental Quality regional office or online.

The water resources division posts reported algal bloom events here.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health suggests people do the following to avoid algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy. 
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae. 
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present. 
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.  
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom. 
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately. 
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately. 

Additional information on other potential microorganisms or pollution in waterbodies may be found on the website.

Visit the DWR website to learn more about algal blooms. For more information about the potential health effects from algal blooms, got to the DPH website.

Third in a series on the Albemarle region’s environmental-economic connections.

Persistent algal blooms on the Chowan River are nothing new, but there was a time when the problem, one affecting public health, the environment and the coastal economy, got better. Then the blooms returned, and researchers are still trying to determine why.

Blue-green algal blooms return each summer to rivers in northeastern North Carolina and linger. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality on July 18 issued a warning to avoid the Chowan River from Tyner on Indian Creek in northern Chowan County to Edenton.

Related: Lingering Chowan River algal bloom prompts state advisory

A 30-month program administered by the Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council is more than a year into looking at why the Chowan, Perquimans and Pasquotank rivers are so prone to the blue-green algal blooms that are caused by cyanobacteria feeding frenzies on nutrient-rich waters. These bacteria are potentially toxic to humans and animals and are associated with hypoxia, or deprivation of oxygen, in the water, leading to fish kills.

Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council Executive Director Elizabeth Bryant, a longtime resident of the Edenton area, said the problem is significant and real, and affects the area’s most important resources.

“With blue-green algal blooms in Edenton Bay and then farther north on the Chowan River,” Bryant said, “They’ve been severe to the point where warnings had to go out about people not swimming, that if they’re boating, they should steer clear of algal blooms. And not touch the fish in the area. Obviously, that restricts tourism.”

The council serves 10 northeastern North Carolina counties: Camden, Chowan, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and Washington.

Bryant said the algal blooms can be breathtaking and affect towns across the region.

“If you get out of your car, and you can hardly breathe because of the scent of algal blooms, you’re going to get back in your car,” she said. “That will inhibit tourism to Edenton to Elizabeth City.”

Some of the region’s smaller towns’ economies depend on the summer travelers to or from the Outer Banks, Bryant added.

The 30-month-long study, Bryant noted, will yield data for the council’s entire service area. The grant requires gathering samples consistently throughout the year and, importantly, water samples are collected at tributaries and streams, and not necessarily the larger rivers.

The study is funded through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program administered by the state attorney general’s office. The program is part of a 25-year agreement that resulted from the state’s hog waste pollution case settlement with Smithfield Foods.

Attorney General Josh Stein, speaking at an event in May in Bertie County, said that in the 22 years since the agreement was signed, about 210 projects had been funded with awards totaling more than $40 million. Numerous awards have supported different strategies to improve water quality, Stein said.

Colleen Karl is the chairperson of the Chowan Edenton Environmental Group. She and others in the organization are among the numerous amateur, or public, scientists who are gathering samples for analysis as part of the program.

“It’s a very large watershed and we’re sampling on a lot of back roads,” she said.

The Chowan Edenton Environmental Group is sampling the waters of Potecasi Creek, a tributary of the Chowan River that joins the river at almost the same location as the Meherrin River.

“Some of those tributaries that come off Potecasi Creek, were earmarked as pretty high in nitrogen,” she said.

Nitrogen and phosphorous have long been known to contribute to cyanobacteria blooms, but other factors have also been identified, including those related to climate change.

Dr. Hans Paerl and Dr. Nathan Hall of the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences are analyzing the samples. Paerl, who has published papers on climate change and how it affects blue-green algae, explained that the organisms are influenced by changing weather patterns.

“These bloom organisms are particularly sensitive to climate change, including overall warming of the globe’s atmosphere and water, but then also more extreme events, like bigger storms and bigger droughts,” Paerl said. “Those things have come into the equation to more or less complicate factors in terms of coming up with recommending management strategies.”

Paerl has been studying the Chowan River watershed since the 1980s, when herring was still abundant in the river.

“When I first started working there, they had big herring pickling places (where) I used to buy my herring over in Colerain,” he recalled.

He was part of a team that came up with an early management plan for reducing the nutrient load entering the Chowan.

“When I first got hired to look at the blooms on the Chowan River, that was back in 1980, I believe. We did a good job. We identified both nitrogen and phosphorus and came up with some recommendations for how much reductions needed to take place in terms of input of those nutrients, and it proved to be pretty effective,” Paerl said.

It was a temporary reprieve.

“Then 15 or 20 years later, the blooms returned to the Chowan — pretty much the same players. So now we’re trying to figure out what has happened in the interim,” he said. “We’re still really aiming for nutrient reductions. We may need to reduce them even more now than we did before. The additional thing is climate change.”

But climate change does not completely explain why there has been an increase in algal blooms in rivers like the Chowan. As Hall explained, when the Albemarle Resource and Conservation Development Council first approached the researchers, they wanted to know where the nutrients had originated. In reviewing data and literature on nutrients in the rivers, a sudden spike wasn’t apparent.

“We have flow gauges (on the rivers) and the Division of Water Resources measures the concentrations. So, we have flow, we have concentrations, we can calculate loads,” Hall said. “Those major rivers don’t look particularly spectacular as far as how much load. The concentrations in the rivers really aren’t that high.”

What was apparent though was that relatively minor tributaries to the Albemarle Sound where gauges were in place or were otherwise monitored seemed to have significantly higher nutrient loads.

“For the few small streams where we do have concentration data, like the Scuppernong River, the Pasquotank River, the Perquimans River — these are smaller tributaries to the Albemarle Sound area — the concentrations are really high,” Hall said.

Those concentrations are also being found in the tributary streams — concentrations so high that they may be a significant contributing factor to algal blooms.

“A lot of the smaller streams are three times higher concentration than the big rivers. So if they’re carrying a proportional amount of flow and they’re about 15% of the watershed, they’re carrying three times higher concentration, they could be 40% of the load,” Hall said.

The study recently passed the 12-month mark, and there are still a number of unanswered questions. It remains unclear, for example, where or how the nitrogen is entering the river system.

“The organic nitrogen component is something that’s increasing in a lot of the streams in North Carolina. And it’s been kind of a head-scratcher as to where it’s coming from,” Hall said.

He explained that one of the goals of the project is to look across some of the streams that have different watershed and land-use characteristics, that are higher agriculture use, or include urban development, and try to investigate what the dissolved organic components look like.

Land use may be the key to mitigating extreme algal blooms, but to date the role of land use, how it affects nutrient loads, is not completely clear. To North Carolina State University researcher Dr. Chris Osburn, who is analyzing the data, the information is by no means definitive.

“Preliminary evidence points to changes in land use and climate (especially extreme rainfall events) that can mobilize DON (dissolved organic nitrogen) from wetlands and forested landscapes into tributaries, which could be driving some of the increases in DON observed in the Chowan River. Research into the sources of DON to these tributaries is ongoing,” Osburn responded to Coastal Review in an email.

Even if the sources of nutrients that are creating algal blooms in the Albemarle Basin are identified, Paerl said limiting the blooms is about the best that can be accomplished.

“We’re probably never going to be able to get rid of cyanobacteria in these slow-moving systems, and even in Albemarle Sound,” he said. “But we can keep it from getting worse.”

He said that’s essentially the point of mitigation strategies: holding back an issue or a problem from getting worse. “After all, cyanobacteria have been around on Earth for 2 billion years. They’re not going to go away.”

People are being advised to avoid contact with waters affected by a nearly weeklong algal bloom in several northeastern North Carolina counties.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Water Resources  on Tuesday advised that the public should avoid contact with green or blue water in the Chowan River due to an algal bloom that has lingered in the area since July 12.

The division said the bloom had been observed along both shorelines of the river, from Tyner to the Edenhouse Bridge in Edenton. Counties currently affected include Chowan, Bertie and Hertford. Algal blooms tend to move due to wind and wave action.

The division said it had investigated the bloom and determined it was dominated by Aphanizomenon, which belongs to the algal group cyanobacteria and is also known as blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria blooms usually appear bright green but when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue. Decaying algae may produce a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area.

Decaying algae have been observed in the northern part of this bloom, including near Tyner and Arrowhead Beach, officials said.

Aphanizomenon can produce microcystin, an algal toxin that may cause adverse health effects in humans and pets. A rapid test did not detect the presence of microcystin in this bloom. However, toxin production is dynamic and can change rapidly over time and location.

North Carolina has had no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with this algal bloom.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health routinely encourages the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

Officials suggest the following steps to safeguard against algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored, or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online. To view reported algal bloom events, visit the division’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

At the end of a gravel road, tucked deep into the woods, bald cypress trees dot the shoreline of Bennett’s Mill Pond. Great blue herons wade in the shallows, searching for their next meal. It’s July in North Carolina, and time on the water would be the perfect way to enjoy some peace and quiet. But not today.

Haley Plaas pulls on a pair of rubber gloves. She lays on the dock and gently reaches her hand in. A mucus-like substance clings to her glove as she pulls back, leaving stringy threads on the water’s surface. While brilliant in color, the network of blue scum across the pond is dangerous cyanobacteria, a type of harmful algae.

Sometimes confused with aquatic plants like duckweed, cyanobacteria can vary from looking like green or blue-green opaque, thin mats to translucent paint or dye. Blooms pose a threat to the local environment — leading to fish kills, ecosystem damage, and drinking water contamination. They can also cause illness in humans and death among pets and wildlife.

Harmful algal blooms, often called HABs, occur naturally, but human activities increase their frequency and intensity.

HABs feed on nutrient runoff — anything from leaky septic tanks to fertilizers and industrial waste. While the U.S. South has dealt with this for years, it’s a growing global environmental issue exacerbated by climate change. Increased surface temperatures lead to warmer waters, and more extreme storms are followed by periods of drought. That combination is a perfect recipe for the algae — storms increase nutrient runoff into waterways, and then drought leads to stagnant, warm water.

While cyanobacteria directly impact water quality, less is known about how they affect air quality. Enter Plaas, a doctoral candidate in environmental science and engineering at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Harmful algal blooms emit cells and chemical compounds that travel as tiny atmospheric particles, called aerosols. Plaas has partnered with the Chowan Edenton Environmental Group, or CEEG, to deploy PurpleAir air sensors along North Carolina’s Chowan River, part of the Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system. Their goal is to see if blooms correlate with poor air quality due to an increase in these aerosols, and generate a wealth of accessible data in areas that are underreported.

The PurpleAir project examines air and water quality in the entire Albemarle-Pamlico estuarine system, but its focus is on the Chowan River. Not only does this region experience more blooms than other areas of the state, it also has a high prevalence of asthma among the population.

Additionally, the size of the estuarine system — the second largest in the country — means that high wind and wave action can contribute to toxins moving easily through the river and its tributaries.

Sending data to the PurpleAir website every 10 minutes, the sensors measure the number of particles in the air, as well as humidity and temperature.

“We don’t have any information about aerosol composition from these sensors, we just know the amount that’s there,” Plaas explained. “But since we’re looking over a big area and over a seasonal trend, we’ll be able to see a cause and effect. If we see a bloom, then in the following days are we seeing increases in aerosol particles?”

Educating, engaging the public

Chowan Edenton Environmental Group educates the public about environmental issues and supports research efforts in the area.

“Water quality is a key issue here. It’s a big part of our livelihood,” said CEEG Chair Colleen Karl. “It affects the economy — just look at the number of people that commercially and recreationally fish. Farming is tied into it because they use the water for irrigation, among a number of other reasons. There’s also a lot of people that buy houses in the area because they want to be on the water. So it’s a concern for a lot of people.”

Karl, a former high school teacher and science outreach coordinator for North Carolina State University, is passionate about introducing others to the world of environmental research. Today, she brings that same energy to her work with the CEEG.

“One goal of the CEEG is to increase understanding of changes we experience in our local ecosystems,” she said. “We all want the best environmental planning for the communities we call home.”

The group partners with a myriad of research organizations including the UNC Institute of Marine Sciences, North Carolina Sea Grant, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offices in North and South Carolina, North Carolina State University, the State Climate Office, and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

“If we can work with another agency, there’s a lot of mileage we can get out of that. It might come in the form of grant writing or a community event. It might come in the form of a partnership you never even thought about,” Karl said. “For our area especially — in rural Eastern North Carolina — partnerships like that can be vital.”

In the study, funded by North Carolina Sea Grant and the Water Resources Institute, Karl engages the community — finding volunteers to host sensors, scouting blooms, collecting water samples, and building local partnerships. Plaas serves as scientific oversight and determines areas to install sensors, conducts lab experiments and builds statistical models for the data.

Barbara Putnam is the operations manager at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City. The museum serves 13 counties, interpreting and telling the history of the region. When Putnam was approached about hosting a sensor, she saw a connection between the air quality project and the mission of the museum.

“What better way to preserve history, even if it’s an environmental recording and not the recording of an artifact?” she asked. “You’re taking data from the environment and then creating a history of that.”

Chip Wynns grew up on the Chowan River. His family owned a fish company from the 1950s until it was destroyed by Hurricane Isabel in 2003. He and his wife, Reba Wynns, have lived on the property since 2015.

The Wynnses’ love for the river made it an easy decision to host an air sensor. While they’ve seen water quality issues since living there, it’s much better than years past.

“The 1980s was horrible,” Chip Wynns said. “I remember it looked like fried eggs floating on the water. You could take a stick and pick it up it was so thick — slime, clumps, green, just nasty. There was a lot of debate about why. I think industries took a lot of the hit for that.”

Lois Thompson said air quality is a concern for not only her health, but also her 9-year-old grandson’s. That concern fueled her decision to host an air sensor at her home in Edenton.

“You walk outside and sometimes you say, ‘Oh gosh, I’ve got a headache and I’ve just walked outside,’ and you don’t know what caused that headache. You don’t know if it’s something in your house or if you walked outside and there’s something in the air that you picked up,” she said. “You just want to know how the air is and what’s really going on around you.”

Albemarle Regional Health Services partners with researchers on a number of issues, including HABs. Besides the PurpleAir project, the public health facility is working with researchers at Duke University investigating the links between cyanobacteria and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Participating in research is a crucial part of serving the Albemarle community, said Health Director Ashely Stoop.

“You cannot be solely academic-driven and you cannot be solely practice-driven,” she said. “You’ve got to look at the data, and that academic component really helps us figure that data side out.”

Collaborations like this are vital to Plaas’ research.

“By directly collaborating with community scientists you’re connected to a network of people who are seeing these environmental issues every day,” she said. “It’s really important to put community members in the driver’s seat.

“I know this can’t be possible for all research, but for a lot of environmental and public health research it’s crucial to get feedback from the communities that you’re hoping to have an impact in.”

Plaas said engaging community scientists is not only practical — they host sensors, collect water samples, and notify authorities when blooms arise — but it’s also ethical.

“I see the intention of science to be seeking knowledge to improve and better our societies,” she said. “I think the only way that you can really know if you are doing research that’s going to improve a community is if you’re getting constant feedback from them the whole time.”

Like her work in the Albemarle Sound, Plaas is also monitoring air and water quality in the San Francisco Bay Delta Estuary to see if harmful algal blooms contribute to air pollution, and if toxins in the water can go airborne. Her experiments in the lab at UNC explore how gasses emitted from blue-green algae might condense in the atmosphere as a liquid and then travel as aerosol.

Know the warning signs

While the signs of a large bloom are obvious, smaller concentrations of cyanobacteria are invisible to the unaided eye. Because of this, it’s important to not only know the visible warning signs, but also recognize when the conditions are ripe for a bloom. HABs prefer slow moving to stagnant, warm water with plentiful nutrient runoff.

Due to wind and wave action, HABs can move quickly through an ecosystem. An area can be healthy one instant and then contaminated in just a few hours. Cyanobacteria are the most common type of harmful algal bloom found in freshwater, although it can occur in brackish or saltwater as well. Historically an issue in hot climates, harmful algal blooms are now found across the globe and in all 50 states.

Stephen Hammer has spent thousands of hours fishing in North Carolina — usually in preparation for bass tournaments. With that much time on the water, Hammer and his peers can share updates to researchers and environmental groups.

“We’re looking at water quality all the time,” he said. “What color is the water? Is it moving? Is it coming in, is it going out? … If you’ve got algae, you better move ’cause you ’aint gonna catch no damn fish,” he said.

Fish and shellfish can absorb toxins into their bodies, but little is known about the human health risks associated with consuming affected meat. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends trimming the skin, fat, and internal organs — areas where toxins are most likely to accumulate — before cooking fish and to avoid eating the “mustard” of crab. The World Health Organization advises moderation in eating fish exposed to blue-green algae.

This story has been updated to include the link to the published report.

As spring gives way to summer and temperatures rise, the rivers and streams that are part of the Albemarle Sound Basin in northeastern North Carolina are home to an increasing number of algal blooms. New research draws a connection between the presence of these blooms and potentially hazardous fine particulate matter in the air.

In 2021, the Albemarle Resource Conservation and Development Council noted on its website that, “After an absence of 25-30 years, algal blooms have returned to parts of the Chowan River, Edenton Bay, Albemarle Sound, Little River, Perquimans River, and Pasquotank River. The summer blooms in 2015-2020 triggered state advisories for swimming and consuming fish.”

The algal blooms triggering the advisories are caused by cyanobacteria, a form of bacteria that produces its own food through photosynthesis. Cyanobacteria are responsible for the blue-green blooms in the waters of the Chowan River and its tributaries.

Although not all cyanobacteria are harmful, those that are have been shown to contain neurotoxins, hepatotoxins that cause liver damage, cytotoxins that cause cellular damage, and dermatoxins that potentially cause skin irritation, necrosis and damage to mucous membranes. 

Cyanobacteria blooms have become a global health concern. Writing in the introduction to their paper, the authors note, “Water security across the globe is threatened by the recent expansion of toxin-producing cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) in freshwater and estuarine ecosystems.”

The paper, which was posted as preprint access at SSRN, had not been peer reviewed, although final review was expected by the end of June. Update: The peer-reviewed final publication is at Science Direct. 

The release of toxins from cyanobacteria blooms into the air was an area of research that doctoral student and lead author of the paper Haley Plaas told Coastal Review had not been studied as extensively as the toxic effects of the bacteria in the water.

“What has been understudied is if their toxins and their cells have the potential to go airborne, and we know very little about what the health impacts might be for people and wildlife and pets,” she said. “These toxins have been studied quite a bit for their impact when it’s ingested via drinking water, or absorbed through the skin. We know a lot about those health impacts. But we know significantly less about what the health impacts might be if it’s inhaled.”

The ability of red tide algal blooms in the ocean to release their toxins into the air have been studied extensively. For Plaas, the red tide algal booms in Florida were what led to her work at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City.

“I was studying the red tide and the Gulf of Mexico, which is another type of harmful algae whose toxin can easily get into the air, which will shut down beaches all across the west coast of Florida,” she said. “I became really fascinated by this. This microscopic organism having such a big impact on human health and the economy… how water quality can impact human health.”

Cyanobacteria have not been studied as much as the algae that causes red tides.

Colleen Karl, chair of the Chowan-Edenton Environmental Group and one of the co-authors of the paper, said not as much was known about blue-green algae. It was not until recently that environmental conditions had become more conducive to the freshwater blooms.

“Blue-green algae, the cyanobacteria, are pretty much a newcomer,” she said. “They’ve been around for eons. I mean, in the last 10 or 20 years, we’ve started talking about this more as they’re showing up more in local ecosystems.”

Compared to ocean algal blooms, there are relatively few studies looking at the effects cyanobacteria blooms have on air quality. The work by Plaas, Karl and their colleagues sheds new light.

“As far back as 2010, they started looking at the ability of the cyanobacteria toxins to get into the air, but there have been less than 10 studies that have really looked at this,” Plaas said. “Where our study is unique, we’ve actually found a correlation between increases of particulate matter, the PM2.5, and association with bloom periods.”

PM2.5 refers to particulate matter 2.5 microns in size or smaller, air pollutants that the Environmental Protection Agency considers to be of “the greatest risk to health.”

The Chowan River study does not specifically identify cyanobacteria toxins in the particulate matter. Rather, the authors were looking for toxins called microcystins. Microcystins, a family of the bacteria that the EPA considers a “a potent liver toxin and possible human carcinogen,” had previously been shown to be present in area waters “on numerous occasions,” according to the paper.

During the study period, however, microcystins were not the dominant blue-green algae found.

“In our study, we didn’t see a lot of microcystins,” Plaas said. Instead, the research found a lot of another type of cyanobacteria that is not as frequently associated with microcystins production.

Nonetheless, the researchers established what they say is a clear connection between different stages of cyanobacteria bloom and aerosol particulate matter. The authors found that more particulate matter was present early in the life cycle of a bloom, even though it’s at the end of the cycle when blooms can get pretty smelly and their presence is most readily apparent.

“It’s when they’re just beginning their lifecycle when they’re ramping everything up,” Plaas said. “What we are predicting in our preliminary findings, at that early stage, more toxins are being produced when you don’t have as much of the herald signs of a bloom. Toward the end, that’s when it’s potentially less toxic.”

Plaas was cautious about linking the increase in particulate matter specifically to airborne toxins, saying, “It’s not a smoking gun because we can’t say for a fact, ‘Yes, those PM 2.5 particles were made of cyanobacteria or something from the cyanobacteria.’ But we did a robust statistical analysis looking at that time period during the bloom versus not during the bloom and found a significant association.”

The study did not examine why more cyanobacteria blooms are occurring in freshwater bodies worldwide. For that, Dr. Hans Paerl, Kenan Distinguished Professor at UNC Institute of Marine Sciences and a co-author of the paper, pointed to nitrogen, especially in the Albemarle-Chowan River basin.

“Nitrogen ends up being kind of on the short end of the stick. So, any new nitrogen that’s coming into the system will help promote the growth of algae and blooms,” Paerl said.

He said there had been a steady increase in the potential for algal blooms in northeastern North Carolina for some time, as shown in North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality data.

“The thing that we’ve been doing … is analyzing data that’s been collected by DEQ on Albemarle Sound” he said. “The amount of chlorophyll in the water, which is indicative of how much algae is there has been steadily increasing since … back in the probably late ‘90s or so.”

What is causing the increase, however, may be a complex interaction of factors and global climate change may play a role. But Paerl cautioned against looking solely at rising temperatures as the driving factor.

“Temperature is definitely important, and during the summertime when the temperature is up, you have a greater potential for getting blooms of cyanobacteria, which are the problematic bloom organisms,” Paerl said. “But if you look at the long-term data from DEQ, it’s hard to see a signal that’s significantly different from the natural variability out there.”

Paerl said that even though temperatures in Albemarle Sound are rising, “it’s not the increase in temperature that’s responsible for the increase in blooms.”

That’s not to dismiss climate change as playing a significant role. Paerl noted that extreme weather — hurricanes and violent storms — flush lawn, farm and animal waste nutrients into the watershed.

“Climate change may play a role, not so much in terms of the increase in temperature, which is very subtle, but more extreme events,” Paerl said. “More major storm events and floods, and those, of course, would lead to more discharge of nutrients into the system.”

This post has been updated

Along with hot summer days comes the possibility of algal blooms in state waters.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources reminded the public Monday to avoid contact with discolored water that could indicate the presence of an algal bloom.

Certain algae can create toxins that can lead to adverse health effects in humans, pets and aquatic organisms. Blooms that can cause negative effects on people, animals and the environment are called harmful algal blooms. You cannot tell by looking at a bloom whether it is harmful, state officials said.

While algae are a natural occurrence in all waterbodies, certain environmental conditions can cause rapid cell growth called blooms. These conditions include increased nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, elevated temperatures, increased sunlight, and low or no water flow.

“Algal blooms can occur throughout the year, but conditions during the warmer months help to increase the number of blooms that occur,” Daniel Wiltse, Algae bloom response coordinator with the Division of Water Resources, said in a statement. 

Algal blooms can appear as surface scums, which look like spilled paint and can be bright green, red, brown or blue. Blooms can also appear as dense, macroscopic growths called algal mats that float on the water surface, or discoloration throughout the water column. Bloom movement is dictated by wind and wave action. Decaying algae may produce a strong, foul odor across a large area.

The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health encourages the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom. Remember: when in doubt, stay out!

Division of Public Health staff suggests the following steps to safeguard against algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored, or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking, or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online. To view reported algal bloom events, visit DWR’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

To learn more about algal blooms visit the DWR website. For more information on the potential health effects from algal blooms, visit the DPH website.

Sure it’s there, but are the algae blooms made up of teeny-tiny organisms clumped together on the water’s surface harmful?

Can it make people sick, kill oyster larvae or fish?

The University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Algal Resources Collection, or ARC, which recently received a nearly $600,000 grant, aids researchers and scientists throughout the world in determining those answers.

What differentiates UNCW’s collection from other microalgae culture collections in the United States is its ever-expanding catalog of harmful microalgae cultures, explained research professor and ARC Director Catharina Alves-de Souza.

Alves-de Souza is responsible for organizing, updating and making the collection accessible to researchers around the globe.

Her work is a key piece of a larger puzzle in the study of microalgae species that cause harmful algal blooms.

“These cultures, the nice part about them is that we can use them to characterize the species,” Alves-de Souza said. “We can determine the identity of the species by using the DNA. We can determine whether they’re toxic or not and we can also, with the help of chemists, determine which toxins they produce. We can get a lot of information that does help to understand what the other scientists are getting from the field samples.”

The three-year, $581,765 grant from the National Science Foundation she was recently awarded will cover the cost of a new machine that will expedite the identification process of microalgae species.

Using an instrument based on imaging flow cytometry, the machine is basically an automated microscope equipped with a high-speed camera that can be trained with artificial intelligence to identify various microalgae species — think technology similar to that used in facial recognition.

“These machines allow us to look for a lot of samples from blooms in a short period of time to determine which species are present in the samples,” Alves-de Souza said. “This also allows us to check for contaminants in the culture. That’s going to be very important because then we are going to make this information available and all the researchers, not only in the United States, but also institutions in other countries, will be able to use this same information, and use the same protocols.”

Money from the grant will also be used to store some microalgae cultures through cryopreservation, a freezing process that extends the shelf-life of an organism by years. This method of storage doesn’t work on all microalgae species, but it will shave some time that has to be dedicated each month to transfer cultures to new flasks to keep them growing and readily available for purchase.

This is the second grant, the first was awarded in 2018, Alves-de Souza has received since she was hired by the university in December 2016.

The microalgae species collection her predecessor built over the course of more than 20 years needed to be organized, expanded and publicized as a public resource on a website in serious need of an update. That first grant covered those goals.

At the same time, Alves-de Souza began to contribute a much-needed addition to the collection.

“In the beginning the collection had only marine species,” she said. “The freshwater bacteria is actually one of the main problems here in North Carolina.”

Alves-de Souza is using the cultures to gain an understanding of the ecology of these toxic microalgae and how environmental conditions determine the formation of harmful algae blooms. That information, she said, will help researchers like her learn how to mitigate these toxins.

Take microcystin, for example. This algal toxin is listed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a potent liver toxin and possible human carcinogen and it has been found in different freshwater systems in the state. In her research, Alves-de Souza found microalgae producing toxins that were not previously found in North Carolina, including microalgae that produce paralytic toxins.

Alves-de Souza stressed that she hasn’t found the species in high cell concentrations in the environment, “but it’s important that we know that they are there and that we understand their ecology so we can predict if the environmental conditions change, if you are going to have blooms of these particular species in the future. It’s not a problem now, but we know that the species is there so it’s important to know what species we have there so that we can be prepared.”

She is collaborating with Nathan Hall, a research assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences, to investigate the effects of harmful algae on oyster larvae.

Raphidophytes is a class of algae that has been shown “to do nasty things” to Japanese pearl oysters, but no one has studied whether this species impacts eastern oyster larvae, Hall said.

“Catharina has one of the best collections of raphidophytes in the world,” he said. “She gave me lots of different strains of cultures that I can test against and see if they do anything to kill eastern oyster larvae. That project’s still ongoing.”

Hall refers to himself as a phytoplankton ecologist, one trying to unlock the mysteries of these microscopic organisms that form the base of the food chain in the ocean.

“There’s hundreds of species of phytoplankton out there in the water,” he said. “What makes certain ones do well in certain areas at certain times of the year is a question I think a lot of phytoplankton ecologists have and it’s an important question sometimes, especially when one of those species does well as toxic, for example. To do that, first you have to know what species are there. And, in some cases, you really have to be able to culture it to tell what’s even there. That’s one of the things Catharina’s collection is doing.”

From red tide in Florida to paralytic shellfish poisoning blooms in waters north, “bad” algae are around us here in North Carolina.

“Even though we think it’s the same species just because it looks like the species, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s producing the same toxin or any toxin at all,” Hall said. “Having the cultures of that species already in a library somewhere, if all of a sudden we started having a problem with one of these algae that are harmful somewhere else, we could go then to that library collection and see whether if ours produces the same toxin. It’s just a matter of keeping an eye (on it) and so having those cultures already there could be really useful.”

Australia’s 2019-2020 fire season garnered international attention as an environmental catastrophe.

The ecological implications of these fires were many: over 18 million hectares burned, and researchers estimate that nearly three billion animals either died in the fires or were driven from their habitats. The smoke and ash would linger after the last fires were extinguished. It is estimated that 830 million tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere during the fires.

But the impact of the wildfires was not just evident in the land and the air. Australia’s massive wildfires also affected the ocean.

A study led by Duke University called “Widespread phytoplankton blooms triggered by 2019-2020 Australian fires” is the first research to conclusively connect iron aerosol deposits from wildfires to a large-scale marine response.

The study, which was published in Nature earlier this week, concluded that iron particles that were airborne in smoke and ash from the wildfires fertilized algal blooms in the Southern Ocean. And not just on a small scale — the expanse of these algal blooms was unprecedented for the area. While this is a significant phenomenon, the long-term implications of fire-fertilized algal blooms are unclear.

“I think it’s too early to tell whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing,” said Dr. Nicolas Cassar, professor of biogeochemistry at Duke University and corresponding author on this study.

Phytoplankton is a type of algae that sits suspended in the water near the surface. It can make water hard to see through and often gives it a greenish appearance, thanks to the presence of chlorophyll-a. Some algal blooms produce toxins or deplete oxygen in a body of water, and these are considered harmful. But many occurrences of phytoplankton are positive. Algae is a building block of the marine ecosystem, and is a very important part of the food web.

This research focused on iron levels. The Southern Ocean is poor in iron. This means that the area has the potential for more algae growth, but was missing sufficient iron to make it happen. By contrast, the aerosols deposited by the wildfires had high iron levels.

“Pyrogenic” aerosols are produced when things like trees and plants burn. These particles were tiny enough to be transported by the wind, and by the time they made contact with the sea, it was a perfect recipe for an algal bloom.

The blooms occurred between December 2019 and March 2020. But they did not appear right off the coast of Australia. Instead, these expansive blooms occurred thousands of kilometers downwind and to the east. The aerosol outputs of the Australian wildfires traveled a significant distance before causing algae blooms in the ocean.

The research team observed the algal blooms remotely in satellite images. To confirm the anomaly they saw in the satellite data, they referred to robotic ocean biogeochemistry floats. Biogeochemistry floats are ocean-borne vessels that drift through the ocean and collect measurements, sending them back to land via satellite. These technologies, partnered with atmospheric chemistry measurements and transport modeling, allowed the researchers to track the influence of the wildfires on the ocean thousands of kilometers away.

Algae has the ability to sequester carbon by taking it out of the atmosphere and using it as part of its growth process. Since the Australian wildfires were responsible for huge outputs of carbon dioxide, this raises questions about the sequestration potential of algae. Scientists are not sure how much of the carbon from Australia’s wildfires dropped to the ocean depths and is sequestered for good, and how much was respired back into the atmosphere.

“That’s the next question,” Cassar said. “This is really the holy grail, is to figure out if some of the carbon was exported to the depths.”

The relationship between wildfires and climate is complex, and therefore has not yet been satisfactorily reflected in climate models, according to Cassar. Future research on fire-fertilized algae blooms would allow scientists to understand more completely how the climate impacts wildfires, and how wildfires impact the climate.

“I think that what would help in the future is having a rapid response team on site on research vessels, to really understand the full gamut of biogeochemical impacts that these wildfires have on ocean ecosystems,” Cassar said.

The Australian wildfires and corresponding algal blooms both occurred thousands of miles away from the North Carolina coast. But that doesn’t mean this research is irrelevant to North Carolinians.

Wildfires are becoming a more frequent and severe problem due to climate change, and major wildfire disturbances are now an annual occurrence. While Australia’s 2019-2020 wildfires were unprecedented, the American West has seen more intense fire seasons in recent years, carrying smoke across the entire country. The fact that these algal blooms occurred far away from the wildfires themselves illustrates the far-reaching ecosystem impacts that large-scale fires can have.

“We understand how catastrophic these wildfires are for local ecosystems,” Cassar said. “But what our results show is that these wildfires can have an impact on ocean ecosystems thousands of kilometers away, through atmospheric aerosol transport. It just shows the magnitude of the impact.”

The assignment seemed simple enough: Go check out Bennet’s Millpond outside of Edenton and create some photos. There was an algal bloom. It was spreading. And Coastal Review was doing a series on water quality issues in North Carolina.

Little did I know that the experience would leave me sitting on the side of a country road with a blinding headache, lungs on fire, throat burning, and haunted by a young family that was just found dead in similar circumstances.  

When it comes to algal blooms, this wasn’t my first rodeo. Growing up along the coast of North Carolina, where wastewater ponds from hog farms pockmark the landscape like so many dimples on a golf ball, and the fields of King Cotton can spread to the horizon, you become accustomed to these sorts of things — especially during hurricane season when the rains help spill all these extreme loads of nutrients into our waters.  

I knew these blooms were the result of intensive agriculture, development and other human activity. I knew they typically resulted in countless thousands of dead fish. I knew they smelled bad. I knew climate change was intensifying it all. But I didn’t know it could kill you.

Pulling up to the boat ramp of the old millpond, the first thing that struck me were the fumes. Well, that and the fact that there was no life, no birds, no dragonflies. It was hot. The gasses emitting from the bloom were overwhelming. In the moment, I chalked it all up to the fact that trillions of tiny algae were living and dying, and dead, rotting masses of stuff tend to stink. But it was all made that much worse because of the humidity, allowing me to breathe in what I would come to learn was a potential cocktail of toxins deep into my lungs where it would be absorbed into my blood.

I yanked a neck gaiter up around my nose and mouth to help cut down on the smell and began to explore the area.

When you want to capture the essence of a thing, you never just walk up, snap a few photos, and call it a day. You explore, both with your eyes and your feet, and you size up the situation. You start to pick apart the who, what, where, when, why and how of it all. And you start working your way through the thought experiments of how best to tell a story in a photograph.

To do this, we have what photojournalists call the holy trinity of lenses: a 14-24mm lens for capturing big-picture stuff, a 24-70mm lens that is the workhorse, and a 70-200mm lens for distance or details when you can’t get close. These are the tools we can’t live without. And for me, I add a drone to that list as well.

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, UAV, have revolutionized visual communication and storytelling. Sometimes a thing cannot be understood by looking at its parts. An algal bloom is one of those things.

Green water next to green trees. It could be a reflection. It could be duckweed. It could be a mat of milfoil. It could be a spot 10 feet wide and nothing more than some floating vegetation. Who amongst us has not seen all these things before?

But to rise above it all, to climb into the air and look down upon the world reveals the bigger picture. It gives us perspective.

And so, with my trusty drone in the air, a piece of kit I’ve dragged all over the Western Hemisphere, I took a gods’ eye view of the state of things.

In under 20 minutes of standing by the edge of the millpond, my throat began to burn. Not like strep throat, however. This was different. More like inhaling bear spray, something I have experience with. And within minutes, it was my lungs, they were on fire. I began coughing. Hacking. Spitting. Before long, the headache set in. At times I couldn’t catch my breath — also like bear spray.

Have you ever heard of Very Fast Death Factor?

Me either.

But it’s a thing. And it’s way worse than murder hornets.

Which does leave me wondering, who comes up with these names?

Despite sounding like the name of a college metal band, Very Fast Death Factor is serious stuff that does exactly as the name implies — it kills things very quickly. This is the nickname that researchers have given a peculiar little toxin that blue-green algae can emit called Anatoxin-a. Very Fast Death Factor is one of many neurotoxins that a seemingly harmless little algae in our ponds and rivers can pump out. Another is saxitoxin. Its nickname is paralytic shellfish toxin — also bad, also deadly, also here. And it killed a water-skier in Wisconsin who inhaled the aerosolized version of this toxin.

Clearly, I survived. I traded out the neck gaiter for an N95 mask. But the damage was done. Minute after minute, my symptoms intensified. And eventually I realized the severity of the situation. In under an hour, I went from healthy energetic me to coughing, headache, burning lungs, dizziness, and outright awful.

A half-gallon of water made my throat feel better.

An hour of fresh air while driving with my windows down made my lungs stop burning.

And within a couple of hours, the headache was gone.

All I was left with were questions. So many questions.

There had been no signs, no warnings, no “Beware of the Very Fast Death Factor,” and no “stay away from the algal blooms burping clouds of death.” Nothing.

On Aug. 17, the bodies of John Gerrish, Ellen Chung, their 1-year-old daughter, Miju, and their family dog were found dead along a trail that hugged the banks of the Merced River in California. This is a strange one. No weapons. No obvious cause of death. Even the baby and dog were dead. All there. All together. All at once. The National Forest Service had just issued a warning along the very same trail about a harmful algal bloom.

While the world and I wait for that toxicology report, the leading hypothesis behind the death of this family is neurotoxins from that algal bloom.  

We know very little about these toxins and their ability to be aerosolized — how they are made airborne. Even though these neurotoxins are known to be some of the deadliest on the planet (hence Very Fast Death Factor), it wasn’t until 2019 up in Nantucket, Massachusetts, that anyone decided to test the air around algal blooms for this stuff. Low and behold, there it was.

I reached out to Haley Plaas, the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences researcher who took samples from Bennet’s Millpond to study the toxin concentrations present in both the water and air, about my experience. I ran down a list of my symptoms, the circumstances, and the timeline of recovery.

“This kind of anecdotal evidence is fairly common, but under-reported”, she said. “(These) reports are super important for my work …” However, it will still take another month before the sample results come back from the lab.

Given that we are just now beginning to learn that toxins are at times hanging in the air around these algal blooms, anecdotal evidence is largely all we have to go by. Meanwhile, the algal bloom continues to spread. There are still no warnings or closures. And now there is another one building up on the Pamlico River.

This is the third in a multipart special reporting series on coastal water quality. Read more.

Assaults on the environment may be imperceptible for a period of time, but eventually natural imbalances will become evident.

In the quiet fresh waters of the Chowan River basin, its unhealthy water quality is illustrated all too well during the summer by blue-green algal blooms, whether creeping along the shoreline or exploding shore to shore. 

“They were really bad in 2015,” said Colleen Karl, chair of the Chowan Edenton Environmental Group, or CEEG. “It started in Edenton Bay. The water was turquoise.”

Algae, which are photosynthetic microorganisms, are natural inhabitants of waterways. But when conditions are off-balance, they can quickly multiply to harmful algal blooms.

Until six years ago, the Chowan basin’s river and creeks had not had any significant blooms since the 1970s, which were linked to discharges from a paper manufacturer. The problem with algal blooms this time has persisted, but no one is sure what exactly is triggering them, beyond unhealthy amounts of nutrients.

“We know the nitrogen levels are very high,” Karl said. “The big question now is we don’t know enough because these are fueled by so many different things.”

And blooms are now starting to pop up in new spots in the Little, Perquimans and Pasquotank rivers and their tributaries.

Some culprits could be leaking septic systems, fertilizer or animal feed, Karl said, but whatever the source, the problem is exacerbated by warmer waters and rising seas due to climate change.

“There seems to be more blooms after rain events,” she said. “But the stuff is here. The biomass is here. It doesn’t take much for these to explode.”

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality issued an advisory Aug. 2 warning the public to avoid contact with blue or green water at Arrowhead Beach to Rockyhock in Chowan County and Colerain in Bertie County.

The state determined that the bloom was dominated by cyanobacteria, which is known as blue-green algae that can contain toxins and create health hazards in humans and animals, including liver damage. Not only is swimming and boating hazardous, health officials say, any exposure to skin should be rinsed with soap and water as soon as possible.

Karl said more than once she has observed people kayaking and canoeing through waterways thick with algae.

A recent bloom at Bennett’s Millpond formed green mats of algae that coated the surface. 

“Be aware that this body of water is full of blue-green algae that may or may not be toxic,” Karl posted Sept. 1 on the CEEG Facebook page. “The smell of degrading algae was strong even though we all were wearing N95 masks. It is heartbreaking to see our beautiful waterways in this condition.”

Risks to human health

Health effects of blooms are not fully understood, including the short-term and long-term dangers of certain levels of exposure to certain toxins in the algae. For example, an algal bloom was cited as one possible cause for the recent mysterious deaths near Yosemite National Park of a family of hikers and their dog.

Little is known about the health effects of breathing airborne cyanobacteria toxins, Haley Plaas, a doctoral student in environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City, said in a recent interview.

Plaas, who has been researching the aerosol effects since 2020, said that Karl and other community scientists with CEEG have helped with providing study sites and water samples of blooms. In fact, she said she had visited Bennett’s Millpond in late August to take water and air samples.

New equipment, an odd-looking 4½-foot-tall steel body with a mushroom-shaped head, has been deployed on private property to collect aerosol particles. In addition to her writing a manuscript about her work in a peer-reviewed journal, Plaas said that the data will be analyzed to determine details such as the identity and concentration of the toxins, and what environmental factors may have contributed to its presence. Also, the raw data will be released to an open source database.

All sorts of different kinds of algae are known to create toxins, she said, or harnful algal blooms, although not every algal bloom is toxic. Because the data only go back 30 years, Plaas said, it’s not yet known whether algal blooms are becoming more toxic.

In general, blooms are increasing worldwide not only because of warming associated with climate change, but also because there is more nutrient pollution. Researchers hypothesize that one reason for the Chowan’s blooms could be linked to changes in land use that reduced swampland and wetlands — riparian buffers — that would otherwise be there to suck up excess nutrients.

Sources of the nutrients can be hard to pinpoint, much less control, Plaas said, and there also is a lack of epidemiological research on the harm of toxic algal blooms, in part because it so difficult to do.

“Basically, you can be exposed to these toxins by swimming in the water, or eating food (such as fish), or drinking the water, or inhaling it,” she said. “People in North Carolina are most likely exposed in recreational activities.”

But the symptoms — nausea, vomiting, rashes — overlap with symptoms associated with numerous other maladies.

“By the time someone got sick, it may be two or three days after the exposure. Then it can seven days after exposure when a doctor rules out other causes,” she said. Then there’s the complication of collecting the sample and testing it. Since blooms can not only move, they can come and go before anyone has a chance to take a sample, and there aren’t staff available to sample and test every bloom in a state as large as North Carolina.

Research is underway to develop a real-time sensor, she said. But meanwhile, there is a networking system in place that includes cell phone apps and community scientists who report blooms and take samples when possible. There are also existing digital tracking and mapping tools for harmful algal blooms.

With algal blooms becoming more of a concern globally, the recurrent blooms in the Chowan River have spurred more attention from the scientific community.

A part of the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuarine system, the nation’s second largest behind the Chesapeake, the Chowan basin’s waters are designated as Nutrient Sensitive Waters, due to the way they flush and drain.

The 2021 Chowan River Basin Water Resources Plan was approved in March by the state Environmental Management Commission. Basin plans are required by state law and approved every 10 years by the commission. Among the priorities for the plan is management and/or reduction of recurring algal blooms in region, which will require more data collection and review, said Division of Water Quality spokesperson Anna Gurney, responding to Coastal Review.

Implementation of the plan will involve interstate cooperation and best management practices to reduce the amount of nutrients entering the system, such as from wastewater and stormwater. Another important component of the plan is public engagement.

“Communicating the science will create interest and action to protect water resources,” Gurney wrote, adding that several basin stakeholders are already involved in the effort.

“Northeastern North Carolina, like many other parts of the State, are working with limited resources; however, the people are passionate!” DEQ/DWR Basin Planner Forest Shepherd said in an email. “The citizens are concerned about their waters and expressed it through the multiple public comment letters we received during the development of the Chowan and Pasquotank River Basin Water Resources Plans. These plans are tools to assist with public education, outreach, and engagement; which is vital to successful protection of these water resources.”

Karl, who has a background in science, said she sees a need for much more communication with the public, as evidenced by the folks she saw fishing and boating in Bennett’s Millpond.

“Literally, the water was pea green,” she said. “Where were the signs? Not a lot of people are aware of what these toxins can do.”

The county didn’t post any warning about the bloom on its website, Karl said, and the water resources press release has limited reach.

“Who sees that?” she asked. “Unfortunately, we don’t have any way to get the word out.”

Although she credited the progress of North Carolina’s researchers and officials, Karl said that everyone is spread thin and under-resourced. New York is an example of a state that does a better job of networking and reporting blooms, as well as using citizen scientists, she said.

“They seem to be able to get the word out wider,” Karl said. “It takes people. It takes money.”                                               

State officials urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Pamlico River in Beaufort County.

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources in a release Friday explained that the green or blue water is due to an algal bloom and related fish kill that has been in the area since Aug. 30.

The bloom has been observed along the southern shoreline of the Pamlico River from Blounts Bay to Aurora. Algal blooms tend to move due to wind and wave action.

The division found during its investigation that the bloom is dominated by pseudanabaena, which is in the algal group cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria blooms usually appear bright green but when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue and can produce a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area, the division said.

Pseudanabaena can produce microcystin, which is an algal toxin that can cause adverse health effects in humans and pets. While the division said that a rapid test did not detect the presence of microcystin in this bloom, toxin production is dynamic and can change rapidly over time and location.

There have been no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with this algal bloom. Further testing is underway, and results will be available DWR’s Algal Bloom Dashboard.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online.

The state Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health encourages the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

The Division of Public Health suggests the following steps to safeguard against algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger, or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

State officials are urging the public to avoid coming in contact with algal bloom — green or blue water — in the Chowan River in the Edenton area.

In a notice Monday, the state Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources officials said the bloom has lingered in the area since July 27. Officials said there were no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with the algal bloom at the time of the notice.

The bloom was observed near Edenton, from Arrowhead Beach to Rockyhock and Colerain. Algal blooms tend to move due to wind and wave action. Chowan and Bertie counties were affected.

The Division of Water Resources investigating the bloom and determined it is dominated by Dolichospermum and Microcystis, belonging to the algal group cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. Cyanobacteria blooms usually appear bright green but when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue. Decaying algae may produce a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area.

Both Dolichospermum and Microcystis can produce microcystin, an algal toxin that may cause adverse health effects in humans and pets. A quantitative test detected microcystin in this bloom at 350 μg/L which exceeds public health advisory levels. A final report was to be uploaded to DWR’s Algal Bloom Dashboard.

The state Division of Public Health said the public should avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom. The division suggested the following steps to safeguard against algal blooms:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake, or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

To report an algal bloom, contact the nearest DEQ regional office or submit a report online. To view reported algal bloom events, visit DWR’s Fish Kill & Algal Bloom Dashboard.

There’s a new online tool to help identify when a harmful algal bloom may be forming where people swim, fish and boat.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday the release of the new CyANWeb app developed for federal, state, tribal, local governments and other users to help monitor water quality and can be accessed using a computer, tablet, smartphone and most other internet-browsing devices.  

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, occur naturally in many water bodies. When the algae multiply, potentially toxic harmful algal blooms can form, leading to an increase in drinking water treatment costs for communities and affecting lakes and other recreational areas.

CyANWeb was developed by the Cyanobacteria Assessment Network, or CyAN, with input from users across the country, to make cyanobacteria satellite data more accessible to water quality managers, communities, and anyone interested in knowing more about water quality in their area. 

The tool uses historical and current satellite data to develop daily and weekly images that serve as an early warning system. Users are alerted based on specific changes in water color in more than 2,000 of the largest lakes and reservoirs in the country, according to the EPA.

The app uses satellite data only available previously in the CyAN Android app that the EPA released in 2019. CyAN Android is in the Google Play store for Android devices.

“Making this satellite data available across more platforms will improve our ability to respond to harmful algal blooms,” said Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta, acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Research and Development, in a statement. “The release of this update is another step towards ensuring the quality of our nation’s drinking and recreational waters.” 

EPA researchers developed CyANWeb as the latest effort stemming from the CyAN partnership with researchers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey.

State Division of Water Resources officials have received reports of discolored water in Chowan County and urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water, specifically in the Albemarle Sound and adjoining waterbodies.

Division staff announced the recommendation Wednesday to avoid contact with the discolored water in Edenton, Rocky Hock and Elizabeth City and are monitoring the blooms and have sent samples to the division’s Water Sciences Section for analysis.

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, blooms have been occurring in the area over the past few years, and some forms of can produce toxins that are harmful to humans and animals.

State health officials encourage the public to avoid areas showing signs of an algae bloom, which can fluctuate depending on weather conditions and may move around collecting in coves and along shorelines.

State water quality and health officials recommend the following precautions to avoid the harmful effects of certain algae:

• Do not allow children or pets in or near water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or has visible surface film or scum. Anyone exposed should be washed with soap and clean water, including pets.
• If your child becomes ill after being in water where an algal bloom is occurring, seek medical care immediately. If your pet begins to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae and avoid handling, cooking or eating fish from waters with blooms.

Learn More

• To report a potential algal bloom contact the local DWR regional offices.
• For more information on potential health effects from algal blooms, visit the N.C. Division of Public Health’s website.
• To learn more about algal blooms in North Carolina, visit Division of Water Resources.

This story has been updated.

Officials with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources are urging the public to avoid an algal bloom on the east side of the Chowan River because of a toxin called microcystin, a type of cyanobacteria.

Test results announced Thursday by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services indicate the bloom is producing microcystin at observed levels greater than 250 micrograms per liter.

“At these levels, officials with the Division of Public Health would consider this bloom a high risk for acute health effects during recreational exposure, based on guidance values published by the World Health Organization,” the department announced.

State environmental officials have been monitoring numerous blooms in the Chowan River since May, DEQ said Tuesday. On July 17, staff from the Estuarine Monitoring Team responded to a reported algal bloom near Arrowhead Beach in Edenton.

Environmental conditions controlling toxin production by cyanobacteria are not well understood and can change rapidly over time and location, officials said. North Carolina has had no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with this algal bloom. State health officials routinely encourage the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

State water quality and health officials suggest the following steps to safeguard children and pets from any algal bloom:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy. Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

For more information on potential health effects from algal blooms, visit the N.C. Division of Public Health’s website. To learn more about algal blooms in North Carolina, visit the Division of Water Resources’ website.

RALEIGH – Though state health officials consider the bloom low risk for acute health effects if exposed, the state Division of Water Resources recommends avoiding an algal bloom on the east side of the Chowan River because of the toxin microcystin, a type of cyanobacteria.

There have been no reports of adverse health effects associated with this algal bloom. Currently low risk, what causes the toxin production by cyanobacteria is not well understood and can quickly change.

DEQ’s Estuarine Monitoring Team responded July 17 to a reported algal bloom near Arrowhead Beach in Edenton, the Department of Environmental Quality announced Friday.

Preliminary results indicate that the bloom is able to produce microcystin but levels have been observed to be between 5 to 10 micrograms per liter, which is considered low risk according to World Health Organization, or WHO, guidelines.

State environmental officials have been monitoring several blooms in the Chowan River since May.

State health officials routinely encourage the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and suggest the following steps to safeguard children and pets from any algal bloom:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

For more information on potential health effects from algal blooms, visit the N.C. Division of Public Health’s website. To learn more about algal blooms in the state, visit the Division of Water Resources’ website.

RALEIGH – The public is being urged to avoid the algal bloom in the Albemarle Sound area and adjoining waters in parts of Bertie, Chowan, Pasquotank and Perquimans counties.

State Division of Water Resources officials said that the blooms have been observed since May 14 along the eastern and western banks of the Perquimans River, in the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City and the Chowan River’s western shore. Algal blooms tend to to be moved around by wind and waves.

“Staff with the agency’s water sciences program have been monitoring the bloom. Algae contributing to the bloom have been identified as Dolichospermum, which belongs to the algal group cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae,” according to the release. “Algal blooms of this type usually appear bright green but can change to a milky blue when they start to decay. Decaying algae produces a strong, foul odor that can impact a large area.”

The species of cyanobacteria that has been identified has the ability to produce toxins, called cyanotoxin, which an affect the kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, liver and nervous system of people, pets, livestock and other animals, according to the state Department of Human and Health Services.

While there have been no reports associated with this algal bloom, officials encourage avoiding contact with the algae and not allowing children and pets to swim or ingest water in an algal bloom.

State water quality and health officials suggest the following to safeguard from algal bloom:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• Wash thoroughly if exposed to water where an algal bloom is occurring.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that have been exposed to water where an algal bloom is occurring.
• If your child appears ill after being in water where an algal bloom is occurring, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

Learn More

• Cyanobacteria: Protecting Children and Dogs
• Interactive Algal Bloom Map

RALEIGH − Officials with the state Division of Water Resources continue to urge the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Chowan River due to an ongoing algal bloom that has lingered in the area since June 20.

The division said areas of the river that are affected include Bertie and Chowan counties, with reports of the bloom along the eastern and western shorelines from Harrellsville downstream to the Edenton Bay area, as well as the Colerain and Rockyhock areas.

Staff with the agency’s water sciences program are monitoring the bloom. Species contributing to the bloom have been identified as Dolichospermum (also known as Anabaena) and Microcystis, both of which belong to the blue-green family of algae. Algal blooms of this type usually appear bright green, however, when a bloom starts to decay, the color can change to a milky blue. The decaying algae produces a strong, foul odor that can affect a large area.

Officials said there have been no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with this algal bloom.

State health officials routinely encourage the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

State water quality and health officials suggest the following steps to safeguard pets and children from any algal bloom:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy. Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in waters containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

Learn More

• For more information on the potential health effects of algal blooms, visit the Division of Public Health’s website.
• View an interactive North Carolina algal bloom map.

RALEIGH –  The public is being urged to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Chowan River caused by an algal bloom about 12 miles upstream from Edenton, North Carolina Division of Water Resources announced Tuesday.

The bloom, which has lingered in the area since June 20, can easily move to other areas.

Staff with the agency’s water sciences program have identified the bloom species as Dolichospermum, a member of the blue-green family of algae. Algal blooms of this type usually appear bright green, according to the press release. When a bloom begins to decay, the color may change to a milky blue with the decaying algae producing a strong, foul odor.

Though North Carolina has had no reports of adverse health effects in people associated with this algal bloom, state health officials routinely encourage the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of algae and prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom.

Officials recommend the following steps to help safeguard pets and children from any algal bloom:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, blue, discolored or scummy.
• Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you are exposed to water where an algal bloom is occurring, wash thoroughly.
• Use clean water to rinse off pets that have been exposed to water where an algal bloom is occurring.
• If your child appears ill after being in water where an algal bloom is occurring, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

Learn More

• Algal blooms
• Potential health effects from algal blooms

EDENTON — Blue-green algae is a simple organism in that its needs aren’t all that complex: A little heat, some water, sunshine, throw in some sort of nutrient and you have the ingredients of an algal bloom.

That was the case in late June in Edenton Bay, and last summer … and in 2015. Edenton is not the only place in eastern North Carolina that is prone to algal blooms, though. They regularly occur throughout the Neuse River estuary, and in the Pamlico River and Tar River. Blooms of this microscopic organism have become a regular summer feature of eastern North Carolina summers.

Smelly and potentially dangerous to humans and their pets, blue-green algae in sufficient quantity can rob the water of oxygen, potentially leading to massive fish kills.

Algae is not necessarily harmful, a point Mark Vander Borgh, algal ecologist with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality makes.

“Only a very small fraction can cause toxicity. Ninety-five percent are beneficial,” Vander Borgh said.

Blue-green algae, however, falls into the 5 percent not-beneficial group, but even that is not quite accurate — only certain blue-green algae are harmful.

The organism’s scientific name is cyanobacteria, and it is considered a bacterium, although it remains part of the algae family. In this case, it’s a single-celled alga.

There are several factors that make the cyanobacteria different. As bacteria go, this type is rather large. It is also the only bacteria group that is capable of photosynthesis, and it is the photosynthesis that gives it its blue-green hue. As the bloom dies off, there is frequently a blue tint in the water.

The algae are always present in the water and, given the right circumstances, can bloom at any time.

“All algae can bloom. It’s just a rapid growth of the algae,” Vander Borgh explained.

Although cyanobacteria require water, sunlight and a little heat to survive, their reproduction escalates rapidly when nutrients are added to the mix.

“The main reason for a bloom is nutrients,” said Hans Paerl, professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina Institute of Marine Sciences in Morehead City. “Nitrogen or phosphate are the most important causative factors.”

Nitrogen and phosphate are two of the most-used elements in fertilizers, and farm runoff is considered one of the most likely culprits in causing algal blooms.

Establishing where the nutrients originated, however, is a difficult task.

“There’s no single source that can be identified,” Vander Borgh said, adding that any storm event has the potential to trigger an algal bloom. “Stormwater runoff is the main source of pollutants in the country.”

Vander Borgh also noted that farm runoff is not the only potential source of nutrient. Animal waste, bird droppings and feces from other critters also contain nutrients.

“Poop is poop,” is his description.

Yet there is little doubt that the heavy use of fertilizers has contributed significantly to increased occurrences of algal blooms.

“The use of chemical fertilizers has increased dramatically since the end of World War II,” Paerl said.

Fertilizers are going to continue to be used, but effective mitigation steps have been developed.

One of the most successful methods of reducing fertilizer runoff is maintaining a riparian buffer between a cultivated field and the watershed. A riparian buffer, or a narrow zone of plants or grasses — usually native plants and grasses — bordering a stream, lake or pond is considered the primary line of defense in maintaining water quality. Riparian buffers not only stabilize stream banks and provide shade and habitat, but the vegetation filters stormwater runoff and absorbs nutrients.

“Riparian buffers have been a good thing for North Carolina,” Paerl said. “They are effective.”

Paerl noted that the state has improved its management of nutrient introduction into the state’s watersheds.

“I’ve been in North Carolina since 1978. I was working on the Chowan River. In 1978, we had massive blooms. I worked with the state on nutrient-management strategies,” he said. “Things have changed.”

Even with improved management practices, some areas are going to be more prone to algal blooms than others, and Edenton Bay falls into that category.

Located directly across from where the Roanoke River empties into the Albemarle Sound, at the western edge of the sound and the mouth of the Chowan River, the bay is perfectly positioned to catch the dominant southwest summer winds.

Surrounded by farmland, any nutrients that enter the water system upstream end up in Albemarle Sound.

“The (Albemarle) system has a very long memory for nutrients,” Paerl said.

Combine constant winds pushing nutrients and cyanobacteria into Edenton Bay, with no outlet for the water during southwest winds, mix in some summer heat and conditions are perfect for a blue-green algal bloom.

“Blue-green algae like a static environment, a good little flush of nutrients without disturbance to their little happy home,” Vander Borgh said.

Algal blooms are not inevitable, however, at any location. There are factors that go into determining how rapidly algae reproduction may occur and to what extent.

“In drought years, nutrients stay in place,” Paerl noted.

Other circumstances may contribute to nutrients entering the water system. Vander Borgh explained that land disturbance by developers also plays a role in downstream blooms.

How that land is developed is also important, as Paerl emphasized. Hoping to maximize the use of their land, developers often seek to build to the water’s edge, leaving no room for riparian buffers.

“There is some resistance from developers,” Paerl said.

Algal blooms have become less frequent since Paerl first arrived here in the 1970s, despite the recent uptick. There is no clear evidence if the recent increase is a trend or the result of better reporting or more public awareness.

Worldwide, however, it is a different story.

Paerl’s understanding extends far beyond the borders of North Carolina, including his extensive and ongoing work in China. From that global perspective, a trend has emerged.

“Things have gotten more extreme in the last 30 to 40 years,” Paerl said, adding that the ingredients are in place for a potentially significant increase in blooms during the next 20 to 30 years.

Florida in 2016 experienced massive algal blooms along the state’s Treasure Coast, Everglades and Lake Okeechobee, prompting the governor there to announce states of emergency. The American Civil Liberties Union said state officials did too little to warn the public of the associated health risks.

In China, repeated blue-green algal blooms on Lake Taihu have imperiled the drinking water supply for 12 million people.

“We have to get ahead of this before it gets to something like they have in Florida or China. We really don’t want what they have in China,” Paerl said.

Learn More

• Cyanobacteria Blooms FAQs
• Harmful Algal Blooms
• Division of Water Resources Algal Bloom Report, June 2017

Officials with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality announced June 23 that they are urging the public to avoid contact with green or blue water in the Chowan River due to an algal bloom that has lingered in the area since June 12.

State officials are urging people to avoid contact with potentially harmful algal blooms in Edenton Bay in Chowan County, the Outer Banks Voice reports.

The filamentous blue-green algae, identified as Dolichospermum planctonicum, may produce cyantoxins, which can cause illness in humans and animals. According to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, the toxin can affect kidneys, gastrointestinal tracts, livers and nervous systems.

North Carolina has not reported any cases of illnesses associated with this bloom, but officials encourage residents to follow certain measures to stay safe:

• Keep children and pets away from water that appears bright green, discolored or scummy. Do not handle or touch large mats of algae.
• Avoid handling, cooking or eating dead fish that may be present.
• If you come into contact with an algal bloom, wash thoroughly. Also, use clean water to rinse off pets that may have come into contact with an algal bloom.
• If your child appears ill after being in water containing an algal bloom, seek medical care immediately.
• If your pet appears to stumble, stagger or collapse after being in a pond, lake or river, seek veterinary care immediately.

The Division of Water Resources’ Washington Regional Office staff has been monitoring the blooms, which are present due to hot weather, since June.

Learn More

• North Carolina Health and Human Services’s website