- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Cal-WATCH project tracks harmful algal blooms, tests tap water from wells and intakes
Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians is partnering with Tracking California — a program of the Oakland-based Public Health Institute — along with the state agencies to carry out the California Water: Assessment of Toxins for Community Health Project, or Cal-WATCH.
The group sought funding for a five-year project through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Environmental Health Capacity program.
The project summary explains that it’s working to increase the ability to reliably track and prevent harmful algal bloom illness statewide, with a special emphasis on Clear Lake, where those blooms, or HABs, have increased substantially since 2009.
Staff with the Public Health Institute and its Tracking California program, partners in Cal-WATCH, arrived in Lake County on Friday.
The team includes Susan Paulukonis, is a rare disease epidemiologist for the Public Health Institute and program manager for Cal-WATCH; Dr. Gina Solomon, MD, of the Public Health Institute and principal investigator of the Cal-WATCH project; Alexa Wilkie, program manager for Tracking California; David Chang, project coordinator for Tracking California; and Isadora Nogueira, research association with Tracking California.
Following a tour around the lake led by Karola Kennedy, water resources manager for Robinson Rancheria, the group gathered with Big Valley environmental staff, including Environmental Director Sarah Ryan, in Lakeport on Friday to plan a weekend of work.
Ryan said the group is “treading in new territory” in terms of public health.
The focus this weekend is on-the-ground outreach, one of the key purposes of which is to find out how people get their information about the lake and how informed they are, with a view to doing better public outreach, said Solomon.
The group is planning to do outreach on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Lakeport at Library Park and at the farmers market at the Lake County Fairgrounds, and also will be stopping at locations throughout Clearlake and Clearlake Oaks.
The survey can also be taken online for those who don’t meet up with the group this weekend.
For those who participate, there is a raffle in which they can win $25 gift cards.
Solomon said they’re hoping that in the coming years they can improve the system used to alert people when there are toxic blooms on Clear Lake, especially in circumstances where the HABs don’t appear as evident.
“The aim of this weekend is to collect as many survey responses as we can,” Paulukonis added.
Ryan said they also will have the paper surveys available around Lake County, with signs in English and Spanish that also feature scan codes to go to the online version.
Based on early returns, “We’re going to get a lot,” said Ryan, and that’s what the group wants.
Paulukonis said they will stop collecting survey data around Labor Day weekend and will put together a presentation of the results that will target local health agencies, tribes and anyone doing health education outreach. She said there also will be a community component.
Tracking illness reports
Ryan said the tribe has been involved in lake monitoring since 1999.
She said a state blue green algae committee began in 2006 in response to issues the Klamath tribes were encountering, with more efforts to ramp up monitoring beginning around 2010.
The California State Water Resources Control Board began tracking blooms on public water bodies in 2016, according to the Tracking California website.
Solomon said the issues with HABs is a relatively new issue that’s been getting worse in recent years.
The Tracking California website shows that in 2016, there were 91 blooms reported across California and no illness reports, followed by 181 blooms with no illness reports in 2017. By 2018, blooms had increased to 190 with 19 illness reports, and rose again in 2019 to 241 blooms and 22 connected reports of illness.
“It screams for attention,” said Solomon.
She added, “Not all of what’s out there is toxic. And not all that’s toxic is noticeable, so it can be a little tricky.”
Paulukonis said the state started working with partner agencies in 2018 to report illness impacts. Since then, they’ve been collecting data on humans, animals and wildlife.
Tracking California works with entities like Big Valley, the State Water Resources Control Board, the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, California Department of Fish and Wildlife and California Department of Public Health, she said.
“We investigate the reports that come in collectively and then report those that do seem to have some association with the bloom exposure up to the CDC’s reporting system,” which is called One Health, Paulukonis said.
She said part of the grant is to support Big Valley and Ryan’s team in responding to illness reports that come out of Clear Lake and the creeks feeding into it.
Of the reports received statewide of illness connected to HABs, 15% of the cases are coming from Clear Lake and its associated water bodies, Paulukonis said.
Paulukonis said when they get a report of a sick dog, human or wildlife in Lake County, Ryan and her team can be on the scene the same day to investigate. That rapid response is a huge advantage.
In one recent case, Ryan said they followed up with the owner of a dog that got sick after going into Kelsey Creek at the end of June. The dog, she added, survived.
Separately, Big Valley’s Clear Lake Water Quality Facebook page posts regular updates on testing results involving cyanotoxins on Clear Lake.
Water monitoring project looks at wells, intakes
While illness caused by HABs for humans, pets and wildlife is a chief area of focus for the project, it’s not the only one.
Another area of study is the safety of drinking water from the lake. Sixty percent of Lake County residents get their drinking water from Clear Lake, and so one facet of the project is to test drinking water from small water systems — as small as one to four connections — and from intakes and wells within 150 feet of the shoreline.
Ryan said the free testing project began in the fall, with water testing beginning earlier this year. She said those who are serviced by public water systems are not eligible.
So far, Ryan said they’ve identified some serious issues affecting private homeowners in terms of their private treatment systems, and the vulnerability they have to any Clear Lake water quality issues.
“They’re not regulated by anybody, these private systems,” she said, noting they are mostly in rentals, including vacation rentals, and they don’t have to meet Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, like the public water systems with certified managers do.
There are 430 parcels on Clear Lake that aren’t hooked up to a local water system, Ryan said.
Ryan said they mailed out packets, did door hangers and social media posts to alert property owners to the testing project. Sixty responses came in.
The first participants signed up around the end of February. So far they’ve sampled the tap water coming from 44 intakes and wells, Ryan said. Of that number, 14 were wells, 28 were intakes and two were not categorized.
Summary data showed that of the 14 wells, nine had nitrates detected and two had total coliform. Three wells had no detections of anything, Ryan said.
Of the 28 intakes, or pipes that run into the lake to extract water, Ryan said 15 had total coliform and two had total coliform and E. coli.
Solomon said total coliform is a bacteria that’s in the same general class as E. coli. While it may not make you sick, it’s an indicator that water isn’t clean and needs more treatment.
They also tested homes where herbicide treatment on the lake was happening nearby and had no detections of the chemicals, Ryan said.
The next phase of testing is on cyanotoxins, which are associated with HABs. Ryan said so far they’ve gotten initial surveillance reports for two homes, one with a well, one with an intake. Both had intact cyanotoxins coming out of their taps, even with water treatment in place.
She said they just tested 22 more homes for cyanotoxins and are waiting for the lab results.
The program gives the lab reports to participants along with guidance and a resource list on how to get help to set up a proper filtering system for their water.
Solomon said they are still recruiting participants for that project.
Paulukonis said they are planning a webinar for the project’s community drinking water component, with the goal of wanting people to understand the hazards of water that isn’t treated to a safe level.
Ryan said they’ve met with Lake County Environmental Health to let them know the concerning results from the testing.
She said there needs to be more support and help for private water systems.
Paulukonis said next year’s focus for drinking water will be similar, and will look at the water intake and wells on creeks that feed Clear Lake.
They also intend to look at fish tissue and crustaceans coming out of the lake, and the hazards in consuming those, Paulukonis said.
Ryan said good things are already coming from the collaboration, and Solomon said they are hoping the project continues long-term.
“We anticipate we will be here for years to come working on this in partnership with Big Valley,” she said. “There’s a lot of work to do.”
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