Harmful algal blooms: What you need to know

LIVINGSTON COUNTY, N.Y. (WROC) — Harmful algal blooms, or HABS, occur when colonies of algae grow out of control and produce toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds. For Livingston County, one of the more common places that HABs develop is Conesus Lake.

“We typically see HABs mostly along the easterly shoreline of Conesus Lake and we feel that it’s typically more concentrated there because of wind conditions. The wind kind of predominantly will blow towards the easterly shoreline and that’s where we tend to see more concentrations of HABs,” says Mark Grove, who is the Environmental Health Director at the Livingston County Department of Health.

While there is no pattern of increasing HABs with above average temperatures, rainfall could play a role.

“You know when you get rainfall, you’re going to get a flow of nutrients into the lake, you know fertilizer from lawns and so on, that can certainly initiate a HAB, but at the same time, sometimes the rain will just wash it away,” Grove says.

The Livingston County Health Department updates their website at least once a week to inform their residents about potential HABs. While it’s important to keep yourself safe from HABs, it is also important to keep your pets safe from HABs as well.

“We especially tell people to be aware of their pets, especially dogs, in the water. It could be a fatal condition for dogs if they get this concentrated HAB on their fur, they lick it off,” says Grove

Staying safe while having fun is key for the summertime. So before you head into any body of water, make sure you check the condition as well as the color of that water, as it may already be infected with those harmful algal blooms.

Click here for a map showing the reported algal blooms across the state of New York.

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