High levels of blue-green algae found in two Montgomery County lakes

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. ( DC News Now ) — Montgomery County Park officials are telling people to be careful at two lakes where they’ve found high levels of blue-green algae.

Visitors of Lake Needwood and Lake Frank are being asked to avoid contact with the water and to make sure pets don’t come in contact with it either.

Montgomery County Parks and Maryland state health officials say the algae produces toxins when it grows in large amounts and the toxins can be harmful to people or animals if they ingest too much.

“I know that [in] every body of water like this there’s toxins in it and germs,” Lake Needwood visitor Daniel Adjei said. “But I didn’t know that it was this bad that they had to close it. I thought they closed because they just wanted to close. I didn’t know anything about toxins in the water.”

Yellow warning signs have been posted around both lakes and those signs will be removed once the blue-green algae returns to a safe level.

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