Aquatechnex

Does Tap Water Cause Lou Gehrig’s ALS Disease?

aquatechnex — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:56:56 +0000

This article discussed potential long term impacts of cyanobacteria/toxic blue green algae in potable water reservoirs. While it has long been know that these micro-organisms produce toxins that can impact human health and safety, there may be longer term impacts as well. We will be following this and want to remind people that we have tools to proactively deal with these problems. http://www.miller-mccune.com/health/was-lou-gehrigs-als-caused-by-tap-water-38804/

Blue Water Satellite technology helps us detect, quantify and map cyanobacteria in lake and reservoir systems. Phoslock is a new technology that removes phosphorus from lake and reservoir systems changing the nitrogen/phosphorus ratio and limiting the carrying capacity of a lake to support toxic algae growth. For more information, tmcnabb@aquatechnex.com.

Aquatic Weed Harvesting on Discovery’s Dirty Jobs

aquatechnex — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:16:50 +0000

The Discovery Channel’s program “Dirty Jobs” recently featured a segment on aquatic weed harvesting at the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Good little clip of the machine in action including returning captured fish. http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dirty-jobs-doomsday-seed-banker/

Christina Lake British Columbia Continues to Fight Eurasian Milfoil

aquatechnex — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:00:48 +0000

This pristine lake system in Southern British Columbia, Canada has had an expanding infestation of Eurasian Milfoil for a number of years. The tools available to manage this problem are limited in Canada and diver removal continues to be the primary method to target this growth. In 2006, the Regional Government requested our group map and provide recommendations for management. That report can be viewed at http://www.christinalakewpos.com/Lake/Aquatechnex2006.pdf. This document provides interesting maps that show how the operations have evolved at the lake and makes recommendations for program improvement.

This noxious weed however continues to outcompete the ability of diver teams to clear the lake of the problems. As recently as this past summer, expansion of the weed beds continued. http://www.grandforksgazette.ca/news/116323319.html and http://boundarysentinel.com/news/talking-milfoil-christina-lake-13269 are good sources of information on this. The University of British Columbia is embarking on a project to evaluate the potential for biological control of this noxious weed.

AERF Develops Tools for Aquatic Herbicide NPDES

aquatechnex — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:37:03 +0000

The Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration Foundation has been working hard to assist lake communities and those charged with implementing invasive aquatic species programs deal with new National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Because the US Senate has not taken action on House Bill 872 to exempt US EPA regulated products from provisions of the Clean Water Act, as of October 31, 2011 this permit is required in many cases for applications to legally occur.

One of the provisions of these permits is to develop a Discharge Management Plan. AERF has developed and posted a generic discharge management plan that can be easily filled out and used to comply with that provision of the permit. The direct link to this resource is http://www.aquatics.org/npdes/AERF_PDMP_Form.pdf

They have also provided information on the final permit as prepared by Croplife America and have provided resources for state permit writers that have to develop these plans. To access this information go to http://www.aquatics.org/npdes_news.htm

Phoslock Received NSF/ANSI Standard 60 Certification

aquatechnex — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 22:30:01 +0000

On November 11, 2011, Phoslock phosphorus locking technology received NSF/ANSI Standard 60 Certification for use in drinking water.

This certification ensures that Phoslock applications, at the maximum use rate specified on the product label, does not contribute contaminants that could cause adverse human health effects. NSF/ANSI Standard 60 is the nationally recognized health effects standard for products which are used to treat drinking water. In addition, this certification requires annual product testing, facility inspections, quality assurance, good manufacturing practices, and product stock inspections.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency and all states rely on and accept ANSI accreditations by authorized independent third party accreditation agencies, such as the Water Quality Association (WQA).

For more information about Phoslock, please contact tmcnabb@aquatechnex.com or Terry McNabb at 360-527-1271.

AquaTechnex wins SePRO Preferred Applicator 2011 Leadership Award

aquatechnex — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 17:52:22 +0000

AquaTechnex was closed last week so that our entire team could attend the SePRO Preferred Applicator Meeting in Sydney, Australia. This program is presented by SePRO, the leader in development of lake and aquatic plant management tools. At the meeting, our team learned about new technologies SePRO has recently registered wiht the US Environmental Protect Agency and how to apply these products to target invasive aquatic weed and toxic algae growth. It was very informative. AquaTechnex is the only aquatic plant management business that is qualified as a SePRO Preferred Applicator in the Western United States where we operate.

During this meeting, our company was recognized with the 2011 Sustainable Leadership Award. SePRO presents this award each year to one of the applicators in attendance. Our team of Terry McNabb, Kyle Langan, Adam Kleven, Ian Cormican and Adam Harrow were invited onstage for the presentation. We received this award for our leadership in the use of Phoslock technologies to remove phosphorous pollution from lakes in our region, this technology allows us to limit the amount of algaecide necessary to maintain lake systems free of toxic algae.

We are grateful for this recognition and will be striving to do good work with these technologies in the coming year.

WA DOE Contemplating $3000 Aquatic Plant Management Permit Fee

aquatechnex — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:35:54 +0000

FYI, we just heard from the Washington Department of Ecology (Mike Herold, mher461@ecy.wa.gov), that a fee increase is proposed for Ecology permits, including permits for using herbicide to control invasive weeds in lakes. Controlling noxious weeds will be going up to $1000 and controlling nuisance native weeds will jump to
$3000. This is a huge jump. There’s a short comment period before this goes through a formal rule making process.

This has the potential to bankrupt many lake programs in Washington State. Ecology permits already force costs of compliance on lake residents in excess of $2,000.00 per year. With the addition of this fee it could cost lake groups and individuals over $5,000 just to comply with Ecology before any actual work is performed.

Please consider contacting Mike and providing comments regarding this. Thank you.

ESRI Publishes Article on Aquatechnex Aquatic Plant Mapping Technology

aquatechnex — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 16:29:38 +0000

ESRI, the leader in Geographic Information System Technology recently published an article on our Bonner County Idaho Project. This project mapped Eurasian Milfoil over 90 miles of lake shoreline and was used to implement our successful treatment program to reduce this noxious weed from over 7,000 acre to under 600. See http://www.esri.com/library/newsletters/govmatters/govmatfall09.pdf

Good Article on Phoslock Success in Scotland

aquatechnex — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 15:21:37 +0000

Aquatechnex brought this technology into the United States this past year and we have deployed it in a number of smaller lake systems in the Western United States with excellent success. This is a story that documents a larger treatment in a natural lake system in Scotland. It’s a good read. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-14504743

Aquatechnex Completes First Year of Phoslock Work in the United States

aquatechnex — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:21:33 +0000

Aquatechnex biologists often face management challenges on euptrophic lake systems we encounter. Increasingly, these nutrient rich lake systems shift to systems dominated by Blue Green Algae or Cyanobacteria. In addition to interfering with many of the beneficial uses of the lake, these organisms pose a severe threat to human health. In the short term, these organisms produce a number of toxins that can have an acute impact on water users. There are significant numbers of animal deaths reported each year from ingesting lake water during bloom conditions. In recent years the first human fatalities have been documented from the direct exposure. In addition, there are now long term impacts associated with these toxins (see http://aquatechnex.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/new-evidence-that-blue-green-algae-may-contribute-to-als-diseases/)

As algae are single celled organisms, they need key nutrients to be present at high levels in the water column in order to thrive. Phosphorus levels in the water column are key to this growth, high levels of phosphorus lead to conditions ripe for excessive algae blooms.

Phoslock is a new technology we discovered about one year ago. This technology was developed by the Australian Government’s National Science Academy as a lake restoration technology. We made contact with the group commercializing this system and we able to bring the technology to the United States. We began to integrate this into our programs in the Fall of 2010.

Phoslock is applied to the lake surface after a water quality sampling protocol helps us identify an application rate. As the material sinks through the water column, it grabs and bonds the free reactive phosphorus present in the water column. As it settles onto the lake sediments it also forms a layer that prevents phosphorus release from those sediments. By removing and locking phosphorus from the lake, the carrying capacity for algae goes down.

We have completed six applications in the Western United States and have monitored them extensively. In all cases, sampling shows that free reactive phosphorus levels drop to no detect within hours. In lakes without major phosphorus inputs, these levels have remained low since then. In one case where we are managing a lake that receives reclaimed water, we monitor the inputs and dose on a regular schedule based on loading.

We feel that this technology has an important role to play in the future of lake management. This technology shifts us from a reactive strategy to treat toxic algae when they occur to a proactive strategy that addresses the cause of the problem. For more information and case studies please email tmcnabb@aquatechnex.com.