[V]ermonters eager to find refuge from the heat in Lake Champlain are finding dozens of closed beaches instead, from the Canadian border south to Addison County.
In Burlington, officials have said it’s not safe to swim in Oakledge Cove, North Beach, Perkins Pier and Texaco Beach.
Toxic algae colonies have rendered the beaches unsafe, according to state health authorities, who have warned Vermonters to avoid contact with the water and algae blooms floating on the surface.
Cyanobacteria, also known sometimes as blue-green algae, doesn’t usually bloom this late in the year, but the unseasonably warm temperatures have created ideal conditions for the organisms to flourish.
Phosphorus pollution from farms, roads and parking lots is the root cause of the toxic blooms.
An unusually rainy spring this year, coupled with a relatively wet summer, brought with it heavy runoff that contained dissolved phosphorus from all of these sources, said Angela Shambaugh, an aquatic biologist with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation’s Lakes and Ponds Management and Protection Program.
Scientists say they expected a particularly bad year for cyanobacteria blooms, but Shambaugh said, “but a cool, rainy, windy summer kept it in check.”
At least one other body of water, Lake Carmi, has been under a high alert for cyanobacteria blooms for more than a month.
Dozens of Lake Champlain beaches have recently followed suit, most of them reaching high-alert conditions this week, following an extended period of warm, calm and sunny weather.
A federal order last year required the state to slash phosphorus pollution levels in the lake. A group of lawmakers is figuring out how to pay for mitigation efforts.
Julie Moore, secretary of the Agency of Natural Resources, said recently that she’s hoping to pay less for the ordered reduction in Lake Champlain’s pollution than state Treasurer Beth Pearce has estimated will be necessary, at least in the short term.
Moore, who was responsible between 2007 and 2011 for the Clean and Clear Initiative, a similar effort on Lake Champlain, said there aren’t enough projects ready to go.
Lawmakers say Vermonters are alarmed by closed beaches and toxic green slime in the lake.
“This is really distressing to people,” said Sen. Chris Bray, D-Addison. “I think Vermonters are saying, ‘Jeez, we’ve been working on this problem for a while.’”
The ramp-up of investment in Lake Champlain that Moore advocates might not address that concern, Bray said.
“What’s causing us to take a ramped approach,” Bray said, “and how many years are we content to be on the ramp?
“I think, reasonably enough, there are plenty of citizens who are no longer patient about, ‘We’re going to be improving water quality,’ after the investments we’ve already made, and now that we’re making additional investments they want a commitment to clean water sooner, and I think they want to see action on the ground,” Bray said.
A working group must produce a report by Nov. 15 that recommends a long-term source of funding to protect water quality.
“I hope they think big, and I hope they take that task on, and deliver a report that suggests a solution for a problem, or challenges, as big as the one we have,” he said.
