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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Using two different measurement methods, researchers from North Carolina State University conducted a two-year study of North Carolina's Jordan Lake in which they monitored toxic algal blooms. The researchers found that multiple cyanotoxins from toxic algal blooms are present year-round, albeit in very low concentrations. Their findings could improve the ability to predict toxic blooms.

Freshwater algal blooms have increased due to nutrients from sources such as fertilizers and other agricultural runoff entering the water. While every algal bloom isn't toxic -- some algal species can produce both toxic and nontoxic blooms -- toxic blooms can cause problems for swimmers and other recreational users in the form of rashes or allergic reactions.

"We've confirmed both that the toxins are there year-round and that multiple toxins are there simultaneously but in very low levels," says Astrid Schnetzer, associate professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research. "First, let's be clear that the presence of the toxins doesn't affect drinking water -- treatment plants scrub all of that out. Secondly, the amounts of toxins we did find are about an order of magnitude below safe levels, so that's also good news."

[...] The researchers analyzed the samples for five different toxins, and found four of them: microsystin, anatoxin-a, clindrospermopsin, and β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA). Multiple toxins were detected at 86 percent of the sampling sites and during 44 percent of the sampling events.

[..] "In the future, we want to have a better predictive capability regarding these blooms as well as the ability to identify new emerging toxins. The data may also help us determine risk from chronic low-level exposures, as well as tease out what risks derive from exposure to multiple toxins at once."

Journal Reference:

Daniel Wiltsie, Astrid Schnetzer, Jason Green, Mark Vander Borgh, Elizabeth Fensin. Algal Blooms and Cyanotoxins in Jordan Lake, North Carolina. Toxins, 2018; 10 (3): 92 DOI: 10.3390/toxins10020092

Original Submission