Work set to start on harmful algae in Lake Anna (2024)

In a small room of a building on his waterfront Lake Anna property Wednesday afternoon, Harry Looney ran a water sample collected earlier that day through a digital tool that measures water quality and whether there are indications of harmful algae.

After a few minutes, the device gave the readouts.

“OK, this is not good,” Looney said, noting that the results show “a strong indication that we’re into a bloom.”

Looney said he will send the sample to the Department of Environmental Quality for testing.

The 13,000-acre manmade Lake Anna, which cools the Dominion Energy North Anna nuclear power plant and is a popular summer spot, has been plagued by harmful algae blooms and no-swim advisories for the past six summers.

In 2022 the lake was added to the state’s list of impaired waterways because of the algae blooms.

Harmful algae, called cyanobacteria, can appear when nitrogen and phosphorus pollution combine with warm water temperatures. The toxins can cause a skin rash, upset stomach, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The blue-green algae can affect people and pets alike.

More work and information are needed regarding harmful algae blooms, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

In a May letter to the DEQ about the state’s Water Quality Assessment Integrated Report, the foundation said more details are needed in assessments of harmful algae, including at Lake Anna.

“We urge the agency to add a chapter dedicated to assessment results associated with HABs, and within that chapter, present the data associated with HABs in much more detail,” the foundation said.

The foundation also warned that the current state regulations could result in harmful algae bloom impaired waterways being removed from the state list. The current state regulations allow waterways to be removed from the list if there are no Virginia Department of Health advisories.

Removing bodies of water from the impaired waterways list should require documentation, the foundation said.

Looney, co-chair of the water quality committee for the Lake Anna Civic Association, took The Free Lance-Star on a short tour of the lake and areas where harmful algae has been appearing, primarily spots where the water is stagnant.

He also talked about a DEQ study and two projects set to start this week that are aimed at improving the lake water quality, which in turn could stop or at least reduce the harmful algae blooms.

Looney said “scum,” an indicator of the harmful algae, was found on the lake surface of Pamunkey Creek of Wednesday. That area is the hottest spot on the lake, where the harmful algae usually pops up first.

The DEQ is studying the Pamunkey, so that area isn’t being treated as part of the LACA projects.

The DEQ study could lead to more federal funding, Looney said.

His main focus is on the treatment programs, which aim to find a way to free Lake Anna of the harmful algae.

“I see this as a classic system engineering problem,” said Looney, a U.S. Army veteran and retired engineer for the Department of Defense, as he manned his motorboat across the lake Wednesday afternoon.

The two projects, he said, are not aimed directly at the harmful blue-green algae, which can form as scum on the water surface and out of sight in the water depths.

“We’re not trying to wipe it out,” Looney said of the harmful algae. “We’re trying to decrease the excess nutrients.”

The water in the areas with the harmful algae are darker green than the rest of the lake, something that can monitored with a Secchi Disc to show how deep sunlight penetrates. The white and black disc is lowered into the water and the user can mark the spot on a rope where the disc vanishes from sight to measure the water clarity. The deeper the disc travels in sight the better the water quality.

Looney used the disc on Wednesday, once in the middle of the lake and another at Pamunkey Creek. The disc disappeared into the green water of Pamunkey much quicker than the main area of the lake.

LACA hired two companies to treat a pair of sections of the lake.

One company is Clean Streams, Rivers and Lakes (CSRL), which will treat Terry’s Run with what it describes in a statement on its approach as “an advanced, all-natural water treatment.”

CSRL said it will treat that area of the lake with “two safe non-toxic treatments,” calcium silicate and beneficial bacteria as part of the $82,000 project.

The calcium silicate is processed into a white powder that when put into the water mitigates the phosphorous and leaves behind silicate byproduct, “which is a healthy part of soils and waters.”

The other approach, which utilizes a bacillus strains bacteria treatment, is “natural, safe, easy, and inexpensive probiotic solutions to” the harmful algae problem, according to CSRL. The company uses ceramic devices set in the water to generate the beneficial bacteria. The 14-inch “bio-pods” can be active for years.

The company said the “bacteria outcompete cyanobacteria for nutrients in the water, preventing cyanobacteria from flourishing. The probiotics consume nitrogen and phosphorous as well as other organics, like fish waste, leaves, and bottom muck which is mostly organic.”

This month crews for CSRL will be spreading the calcium silicate powder in the water and installing the devices in the lake. The devices are attached to buoys and rest on the lake bottom.

The company noted that the treatments will have no negative impacts on the water, making it safe to swim and fish in the area being treated.

The other treatment project will focus on the North Anna River and North Anna arm of the lake. That work is being handled by EutroPHIX and subcontractor SOLitude Lake Management. Work is slated to start the middle of this month and last through September.

The $822,000 project is funded by the state and is aimed at reducing phosphorous in a “a multi-year restoration plan” to treat the North Anna River and 600 acres of the North Anna arm of the lake.

The crews will inject ”EutroSORB G” into the North Anna arm water and EutroSORB WC into the North Anna River. The treatments reduce phosphorous levels, which will improve the water quality.

According to the LACA statement on the project, the treatment areas will be monitored for quality with two monthly water and sediment samples along with analyzing changes in the algae, “with the expectation there will be a reduction in HAB extent and severity.”

Looney said this is just the start of what are long-term plans that will require more work and money to complete successfully.

Several people at Lake Anna over Memorial Day weekend contracted illnesses, but harmful algae blooms were not suspected as the cause of the illnesses, the Virginia Department of Health said earlier this month.