Photo from the Lake George Association, distributed on Monday, November 9th
During a period of warm, calm days from November 7-9, a surface film of algae appeared in four locations in the lake: Harris Bay, Sandy Bay, Warner Bay, and near Lake George Village. The “suspicious blooms” were visually identified by a citizen scientist who alerted the Lake George Association (LGA), which contacted the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to determine if the blooms could be categorized as “confirmed blooms” (HABs).
A water sample was collected at each location for testing by DEC, and the Jefferson Project team collected a water sample from the algal bloom at Harris Bay and sent it to a national laboratory for testing.
Laboratory tests are done to confirm:
- which algal species is dominant in the bloom,
- whether the concentration of the algae is high enough to be categorized by DEC as a “confirmed bloom,” and,
- whether there are toxins present and, if so, whether the toxins are at a concentration that poses a risk, which is categorized by DEC as a “confirmed bloom with high toxins.”
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