Algae Blooms

WASHINGTON -- Maryland scientists think the long, heavy rains that fell from February to June are the main reason the state's rivers were spared a major outbreak of Pfiesteria piscicida this year.The rains set off a cascade of changes that turned the Pocomoke River from a perfect breeding ground for the toxic microbe in 1997 into a place where Pfiesteria merely put in an appearance this year, Maryland Department of Natural Resources ecologist Robert Magnien said yesterday."These are the first ideas we have," Magnien said at a gathering of scientists and policy-makers at Georgetown University.

PHILADELPHIA - Predatory algae blooms are a mysterious and growing global threat to fish and even humans, scientists at Woods Hole Institute said at a recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science."

WASHINGTON -- American growers of poultry, pigs and cattle need to get used to the idea that their animals' manure will soon be regulated by the federal government just as industrial pollutants are, Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman said yesterday at a Capitol Hill summit on animal waste.The spread of big livestock operations has become the most hotly contested issue in American agriculture, Glickman said, as more and more communities wrestle with such problems as bad smells, air pollution, water contamination and the suspicion that animal wastes contribute to toxic algae blooms -- like last summer's outbreak of Pfiesteria piscicida on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

WASHINGTON -- The federal government is putting together an emergency team to help Maryland and other states cope with outbreaks of toxic algae such as Pfiesteria.Officials from at least nine federal agencies met at the White House on Tuesday and pledged to pool resources.Donald Scavia, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the agencies want to make sure that if Pfiesteria returns to East Coast waters this year, states will have help with everything from sampling affected rivers to testing seafood to make sure it's safe to eat.This spring's warm weather and abundant rainfall have created "favorable conditions" for renewed outbreaks of Pfiesteria, red tide and other algae that endanger people and sea life, Suzanne E. Schwartz, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Oceans and Coastal Protection Division, said in Senate testimony yesterday.

Heavy rains and snow melt have flooded the Chesapeake Bay, fouling it with nutrients and sediment, spurring record algae blooms and risking at least a temporary setback in its improving water quality.The deluge could worsen the "dead zone" that chokes the deep waters of the bay each summer and could deal another blow to the estuary's struggling underwater grasses and oyster population.Experts differ over how -- or even whether -- blue crabs and fish might be affected by the weather-related phenomenon.

Like something out of a horror movie, the cell from hell attacks its victims in gruesome ways, frequently changing its body form with lightning speed. The unicellular organism, called Pfiesteria piscida, has at least 24 guises it can assume in the course of its lifetime. It can also masquerade as a plant or lie dormant for years in the absence of suitable prey.Armed with a voracious appetite and vast reproductive powers, the microscopic animal moves through coastal waters to kill fish and shellfish by the millions and to poison anglers and others, producing pain, narcosis, disorientation, nausea, fatigue, vomiting, memory loss, immune failure and personality changes.

Levels of the two nutrients that cause poor water quality and algae blooms in Chesapeake Bay have risen, reversing a decade of decline or stability, according to a new analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency.However, an EPA official said that because the changes seem to result from natural causes rather than pollution caused by human activities, they may not inflict major harm.The analysis found a 10 percent increase in nitrogen compared with levels in 1984. Levels of phosphorus, which had declined 16 percent from 1984 through 1992, are back where they were a decade ago, said William Matuszeski, director of EPA's Chesapeake Bay program office in Annapolis.

A citizens group that has been fighting Carroll County's request to increase the amount of treated sewage effluent that goes into a stream below Hampstead offered yesterday to negotiate an agreement with county government.If no agreement can be reached, the Piney Run Preservation Association is ready to proceed with legal action, said association President Mary Bee Gaines.The citizens group has challenged the Maryland Department of the Environment's draft decision to allow the county to increase the plant's discharge from 600,000 to 900,000 gallons a day. The challenge is awaiting a hearing before an administrative law judge.

The Columbia Association Board of Directors decided last night to join the University of Maryland in a study aimed at improving the quality of Wilde Lake, which has suffered from harmful algae blooms in recent years.The association and Howard County government will contribute $18,750 each to participate in the $75,000, one-year stream channel study, evaluating ways to reduce stream erosion and the transport of sediment into Wilde Lake from its 1,200-acre watershed.The watershed includes most of Wilde Lake Village, the Longfellow neighborhood of Harper's Choice Village and the Beaverbrook community.

A citizens group that has been fighting Carroll County's request to increase the amount of treated sewage effluent that goes into a stream below Hampstead offered yesterday to negotiate an agreement with county government.If no agreement can be reached, the Piney Run Preservation Association is ready to proceed with legal action, said association President Mary Bee Gaines.The citizens group has challenged the Maryland Department of the Environment's draft decision to allow the county to increase the plant's discharge from 600,000 to 900,000 gallons a day. The challenge is awaiting a hearing before an administrative law judge.

It isn't just Baltimore's Inner Harbor that's been plagued lately with fish-killing algae blooms. Scientists with the Department of Natural Resources say they've been seeing "extensive algal blooms" this month across Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The scientists say they've detected high concentrations of Prorocentrum minimum, a type of algae with little whiplike arms that enable it to move in the water. http://mddnr.chesapeakebay.net/hab/HAB_maps.cfm.

Increasing corn production is expected to spawn an oxygen-starved "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico larger than anything seen in 23 years of recordkeeping - an 8,800-square-mile area, roughly the size of New Jersey - researchers said yesterday. "It's had a disastrous effect on the fisheries for sure," said R. Eugene Turner, a research scientist with Louisiana State University. An increase in corn production to manufacture ethanol-based fuels has jacked up the nutrients flowing down the Mississippi River to the gulf, where they deplete oxygen in the water, Turner said.

The large number of fish kills and toxic algae blooms in the Chesapeake Bay this summer demands "immediate action," the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said yesterday in urging new funding to address the problem. Forty-five fish kills in Maryland's portion of the estuary from June to early August killed tens of thousands of menhaden, perch and other species, according to a new report by the organization titled "Bad Waters." A "significant portion" of the fish kills were linked to the toxic algae Karlodinium, the report says.

To the tourists pushing strollers around the Inner Harbor, the water looks fine -- a little green and murky, but nothing like a few days before, when thousands of dead fish floated on the surface after a huge algae bloom. Allen R. Place knows better. A biochemist who spends much of his time studying the waters that flow in front of Baltimore's premier tourist attractions, Place paces the dock, looking nervous. The water is too green, he says, bending over near Houlihan's Restaurant at one of his makeshift water-quality monitoring stations.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources is advising people to avoid swimming in sections of the Potomac River with blue-green algae blooms near the border of Prince George's and Charles counties. Accidental ingestion of the algae Microcystis can lead to fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Blooms of the algae have been reported along the Potomac from Piscataway Creek to Smith Point, the agency said yesterday. People are advised to wash their skin if they touch parts of the river colored by bright-green scum.

LITTLE GASPARILLA ISLAND, Fla. -- All Susan Leydon has to do is stick her head outside and take a deep breath of sea air, and she can tell whether her 10-year-old son is about to get sick. If she coughs or feels a tickle in the back of her throat, she lays down the law: No playing on the beach. No, not even in the yard. Come back inside. Now. The Leydons thought they found paradise a decade ago when they moved from Massachusetts to this narrow barrier island, reachable only by boat, with gentle surf and balmy air that feels like velvet on the skin.

BEL AIR - The state departments of Natural Resources and the Environment are advising people to be cautious when swimming in the Bush River in Harford County this holiday weekend because blue-green Microcystis algae blooms have been found there. The algae blooms, which occur naturally in tidal freshwater portions of Chesapeake Bay estuaries, can use up oxygen, causing fish to suffocate. The state agencies said affected waters might appear as if a blue-green to yellow-green paint is floating on the surface.

Department of Natural Resources scientists have identified unusually large algae blooms in sections of the Chesapeake Bay that could choke marine life this summer and create the largest oxygen-deprived "dead" zone on record. Although scientists are unsure exactly what effect the blooms will have in the long term or how bad the summer "dead zone" could be, they said they have never seen dissolved-oxygen levels so low this early in the year since 1986. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation went public with the findings at a news conference in Annapolis yesterday as part of a lobbying effort for the so-called "flush tax" that would raise funds to curb nutrient pollution from sewage plants.

Recent blooms of potentially toxic algae in the region's waterways have state officials warning people away from the greenish scum, which can get as thick as pea soup and sicken humans and animals. Concerns sent state officials yesterday rushing to test the Chesapeake Bay's waters off Sandy Point State Park near Annapolis - a false alarm, it turned out, after the results came back negative for blue-green algae, said Peter J. Tango, a program manager tracking the algae blooms. The tests, prompted by reports of blue-green algae in the bay from the park south to the Thomas Point Lighthouse, were the state's latest response to complaints about Microcystis algae.

In Harford County White Hall man dies after one-car crash in Jarrettsville JARRETTSVILLE - A 19-year-old man died in a hospital early yesterday after his car - clocked at 95 mph as it passed a state trooper - ran off Route 152 near Jarrettsville and struck a telephone pole, police said. The driver, identified as David A. Svec of White Hall, was traveling north when his 1990 Acura Integra passed the trooper and then ran off a curving section near the end of the road at Jarrettsville Pike, according to Maj. Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.