Health advisories issued for 3 beaches due to algae

CELINA - Just ahead of Memorial Day weekend, recreational public health advisories due to algal bloom/toxins were issued Thursday afternoon at three public Grand Lake beaches.

The public has been advised to avoid all contact with water at main west, state park campground and Windy Point beaches, according to the Ohio Department of Health's online BeachGuard monitoring system.

The advisories were issued around 12:45 p.m. Thursday. They are triggered when cyanotixins - in these cases, microcystin - are equal to or exceed a recreational threshold, according to ODH. Microcystin is a toxin produced by cyanobacteria, more commonly called blue-green algae, that can sicken people and animals.

A red recreational public health advisory sign is required to be posted at a public state park beach under an advisory.

"The sign advises that unsafe levels of algal toxins were found, to avoid all contact with the water, and that swimming and wading are not recommended. Pets should also be kept away from the water," ODH's website states.

The advisories will remain posted until cyanotoxin levels are below recreational thresholds. The state may lift the advisory after two consecutive sample results, taken at least one week apart, are below recreational thresholds, according to ODH.

Phosphorus-fed toxic blue-green algal blooms have resulted in state-issued water advisories on the 13,500-acre recreational lake every year since 2009.

The local watershed is the only one in the state designated as distressed due to unsafe algal toxin levels, a designation the watershed received in January 2011 after animals and humans were sickened by the toxins in 2010.

Elevated microcystin algal toxins can cause skin rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal distress and harm the liver, Ohio EPA officials have said.