Blue-green algae is an issue Wagga Wagga City Council has battled for years. Photo: File.
A veteran water quality expert has urged Riverina councils to stop spending money on what he calls “pseudo-science” and seek out evidence-based methods to tackle ongoing pollution outbreaks at their respective lakes.
Once vibrant, Lake Albert and Lake Wyangan have been largely off-limits for recreational use over the past decade due to an often high presence of blue-green algae (BGA), a toxic bacteria that can cause skin irritation and other health problems for humans and animals.
For the past 12 months, Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) has conducted trials with water cleaning organisations to treat the BGA in Lake Albert. The first was undertaken by Waterzyme, which attempted to use sunlight to destroy algae blooms.
Despite the six-month, $150,000 trial showing initial promise, the lake had large blooms dispersed in winter, much later than the usual time outbreaks occur.
WWCC then moved to a $300,000 trial with Hydro2050 – which uses superfine bubbles of oxygen and ozone to increase the lake’s oxygen levels and manage the level of blue-green algae – which began in January.
Dr Phillip Orr, a research fellow at Griffith University who has studied toxic bacterial outbreaks in water for more than 30 years, has questioned the value of these trials.
“The thing that I have an issue with, really, is companies that come along to councils and offer solutions that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, that aren’t backed by science, and essentially they don’t work,” he said.
“They’ll baffle councils or other water authorities, with pseudo-science that makes it sound good, and then councils will spend lots and lots of money on solutions which don’t actually work and so when you actually have a look at the technologies, they don’t even pass the pub test.
“Sonication [a process that uses sound waves], usually ultrasonic frequencies, to agitate particles which is used in Lake Albert, for example, I know in the laboratory, the amount of power that we need to disrupt cells over just a few millimeters is huge, and yet, they’re trying to control the algae in the lake with what, five or six sonicators that they’ve got in the lake. They’re quite expensive to run.”
Hydro2050’s Director, Innovation & Supplier Relations, Damien Serong, said Hydro 2050’s methods had seen proven results at Tea Tree Gully Council in Adelaide.
“Proof of performance data was provided to WWCC prior to being awarded the contract,” he said.
“The results of our performance with Lake Albert speak for themselves.”
Region reached out to Tea Tree Gully Council but it declined to provide information on the results.
WWCC expressed satisfaction with Hydro 2050 after the first summer in many years in which there were no ‘red alerts’. The alerts put Lake Albert off limits for recreational use.
“As a part of the investigations into possible algae treatments at Lake Albert, council reviewed multiple products both here in Australia and internationally,” a council spokesperson said.
“These investigations included reviewing the results of the previous use of these products, the research being undertaken, understanding the possible long-term environmental impacts of each of the products, initial upfront cost, and ongoing costs.
“Following consideration of all these factors, council determined to proceed with the trial using Hydro2050. At the completion of the trial, a report will be provided to council to review the results and consider the path forward.”
Dr Orr, who has also lived in Griffith, says there’s no quick fixes to this problem.
“There is no single silver bullet solution … it’s usually going to be a whole range of interventions. It might be in the catchment, it might be in the lake, it might be relating to the sediment, but none of this has been taken into account.
“They need to do it in association with some kind of scientific organisation, whether it be us [Griffith University] or whether it be the University of New South Wales, which has got a very good water group or Monash University, which did a consultancy study for Griffith City Council on Lake Wyangan.
“Whoever it is, they need to approach it from a scientific perspective and an independent perspective.”
