Saratoga Lake under bloom advisory again

As seems to be common anymore around midsummer, Saratoga Lake is under a harmful algal bloom advisory as of July 18 according to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).

This is the sixth consecutive year the lake has been placed under an advisory for harmful algal blooms—or blue-green algae—since 2019. Previous advisories issued by the Wyoming Department of Health and the Wyoming Livestock Board have included the following recommendations:

• Avoid contact with water in the vicinity of the bloom, especially in areas where cyanobacteria are dense and form scums.
• Do not ingest water from the bloom. Boiling, filtrating and/or other treatments will not remove toxins.
• Rinse fish with clean water and eat only the filet portion.
• Avoid water spray from the bloom.
• Do not allow pets or livestock to drink water near the bloom, eat bloom material or lick fur after contact.
• If people, pets or livestock come into contact with a bloom, rinse off with clean water and contact a doctor or veterinarian.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the symptoms related to exposure to a harmful algal bloom depends on the type of contact made with cyanobacteria. Those who come into contact by touching or swimming into contaminated water, or by breathing in droplets of contaminated water, may experience irritation of the skin, eyes, nose, throat and lungs. Those who have consumed contaminated food or swallowed contaminated food may experience symptoms such as stomach pain, headache, dizziness, muscle weakness or vomiting.

As was reported last year by the Saratoga Sun, it is unclear if the blooms at Saratoga Lake—and other Wyoming bodies of water—are becoming worse or are getting noticed more often.

“It’s not clear whether blooms have never occurred in the past and are starting to get worse, or whether we haven’t noticed them in the past and people are becoming more aware of blooms,” said Sarah Michelle Collins, an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming’s Department of Zoology and Physiology, in an interview with the Sun last year. “It’s likely that both are contributing to what appears to be a big increase in blooms.”

Collins also said, in that same interview, that warmer temperatures and more extreme weather events may be a strong influence on the development of harmful algal blooms and how long they last. It is difficult to make specific predictions as to whether blooms will happen earlier in the summer or last longer.

According to the Wyoming DEQ website, samples were taken from the east and central areas of the Saratoga Lake beach on July 16 and results are still pending. Saratoga Lake is one of 10 bodies of water in Wyoming under a harmful algal bloom advisory which includes the North Red Hills Ramp area of Seminoe Reservoir. The latter is also under toxin advisory as well.