Cyanobacteria Mitigation & REMEDIATION (CMR) ProJECT

Project Overview 

LACA has conducted water quality monitoring at Lake Anna in partnership with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) since 2002.  In addition, for the past four years we executed a more frequent and intensive cyanobacteria monitoring project focused on the problematic cyanobacteria issues found in the upper lake region tributaries. LACA volunteers spent the past four years investigating and researching various approaches, methodologies, and emerging technologies aimed at Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) mitigation, remediation, and prevention.  This investigation/research convinced us that the underlying causes of the HABs at Lake Anna are complex, deep-rooted, and difficult to precisely identify and that the solutions we decide to pursue need to be multi-faceted, and they will be expensive and will take a lot of effort over a long timeframe.

The data and information we generated from our research and analysis provides several potential paths forward to fight the cyanobacteria issues we have experienced over the past five years. Our action plan for Cyanobacteria Mitigation, Remediation and Prevention includes an extensive list of both short range and long range prospective actions.

LACA's lexicon for mitigation, remediation, and prevention actions are defined as follows:

• Mitigation: Capabilities, technologies, and techniques that are focused specifically on impacting the life-cycle of cyanobacteria cells. Algaecides and ultrasound techniques are LACA's primary mitigation interests. These techniques are intervention strategies with short-term effects that must be enacted almost continually during each recreational season. The desired effects of both algaecide and ultrasound technologies are observed quickly, often within 24 hours of initiation/application. 
• Remediation: Capabilities, technologies, and techniques that are focused on reducing or eliminating energy sources that cyanobacteria cells feed on or consume.  Phosphorous reduction techniques are LACA's primary remediation interests. Phosphorous reduction techniques are deterrence strategies with longer-term effects when applied in a layered approach to ensure internal and external phosphorous loads are controlled/eliminated. The desired effects of phosphorous reductions technologies are observed relatively quickly, often within weeks of initiation/application.
• Prevention: Capabilities, technologies, and techniques that are focused on returning the lake and its watershed to an ecologically balanced state without the use of mitigation or remediation techniques. Wetland restoration/creation in and around the Lake Anna watershed is a great example of a preventative strategy. Studies have strongly suggested that prevention techniques are costly (hundreds of millions of dollars) and it takes a long time to achieve the desired effects. For these reasons, LACA's project plans do not include any prevention approaches.