SIMPLIFYING THE SCIENCE™
Natural water resources in the US have been deteriorating for decades due to eutrophication, which is driven by hypoxia and almost inevitably leads to toxic cyanobacteria harmful algae blooms (HABs).
Despite federal and state agencies being tasked with managing the risks of hypoxia and HABs before the turn of the century, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in June 2022 that not only has the situation continued to deteriorate, but also that the common use of chemical treatment strategies is completely misguided and actually makes the situation worse.
The GAO recommended a return to basics – understanding root causes, redefining the parameters and metrics used to assess eutrophic water bodies, and developing new protocols for monitoring, forecasting, and prioritizing them for effective remediation programs to reverse eutrophication and prevent HABs.
In other words: Simplify the Science.
This is what our technology partner SIS.BIO and Clean-Flo have been doing for many years now: focusing on measuring what matters, directly addressing root causes, and monitoring improvements quantitatively so that adaptive management strategies can be incorporated into our remediation programs.
Here is how we Simplify the Science of water resource management so that everyone can understand:
CLEAN-FLO IN ACTION:
The First Thing You Must Do Is:
Understand the Process of Eutrophication
Eutrophication is the process by which a self-sustaining nutrient clearing water body that renews water quality by sustaining a healthy biodiverse food web is transformed into a self-sustaining nutrient recycling water body that is overtaken by vegetative biomass such as invasive weeds, algae and eventually toxic cyanobacteria
There are three key root causes of eutrophication:
Hypoxia
Oxygen depletion kills off benthic zooplankton, promotes sediment, nutrient recycling, and decimates the food web responsible for consuming phytoplankton.
Sediment Nutrient Recycling
Fuels algae HAB blooms which die off and sink to the sediment where they deplete oxygen as they decompose and then recycle nutrients.
Disruption of Ecosystem Balance
Hypoxia constrains the food web, promotes nutrient recycling and creates conditions that favor and promote dominance by cyanobacteria HABs.
We tackle the root causes with three key interventions:
Oxygenation
Maintaining aerobic conditions throughout the water column is critical to suppressing sediment nutrient and ensuring that benthic zooplankton can function.
Bio-Dredging
Working off sediment nutrient stockpiles reduces muck that supports invasive weeds, sustains algae and HAB blooms and depletes oxygen from the water.
Bio-Augmentation - Control HABS
Builds up competition to toxic cyanobacteria to restore phytoplankton balance and promotes the re-establisment of the foundation levels of the food web to ensure nutrient clearance.
We measure the success of these inventions by:
Measuring Oxygenation
We measure what percentage of the water volume is hypoxic and what percentage of the sediment surface area is hypoxic to confirm that we have ensured hypoxia can no longer drive eutrophication.
Bathymetry Analysis
We measure how much organic sediment that recycles nutrients and drives eutrophication has been bio-dredged away so that it can no longer drive eutrophication.
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Phycological Analysis
We monitor what phytoplankton species are present and in what quantities to make sure that we have a healthy balance that sustains the food we and prevents cyanobacteria HABs.
The GAO Report on HABs and Hypoxia– Simplified
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) report GAO-22-104449, titled “Water Quality: Agencies Should Take More Actions to Manage Risks from Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia,” is a 90 page detailed analysis of the current state of harmful algal bloom (HAB) and hypoxia management in the United States.
The report highlights the need for a more comprehensive, proactive, and systems-based approach to address these critical water quality issues.
We have summarized and simplified the report down to 10 key takeaways.
