Grand Lake St. Marys toxic algae problem is slowly but surely getting better, but there is still a long way to go.
On Wednesday the Lake Restoration Commission started a new three week study to see if a machine called the Kria Ionizer will help remove the toxic algae from the lake.
Blue Green algae; unfortunately it's an all too familiar sight around Grand Lake St. Marys, but a big blue box could be the answer in erasing all traces of the algae. The box is called the Kria Ionizer made by premier materials. It takes oxygen out of the air, ionizes it, and pushes it through tubes into the lake. That ionized water then kills the algae and other pollutants in the lake.
"High oxygen levels will drive the phosphorous into the sediment so we can get rid of those and then get them into a place where they're inaccessible to live forms in the lake. Nitrates will go down, any pesticides will break up, break apart, if you have hydrocarbons in the form of oil that will go as well," Mike Magham, Eco USA Owner, said.
This technology has been around for more than 10 years, but it wasn't used in the US until two years ago. The Kria Ionizer was turned on around 9 Wednesday morning and within just a few hours we saw results.
"Within an hour we were actually seeing minnows that weren't there yesterday and you'll see more of that as the water is oxygenated because the algae is killing the oxygen level, sucking it up, and then everything has to move," Keith Boulais, President of Premier Materials, said.
"We'll see. Like I said, we have to be cautious; we don't want to be too enthusiastic. Science will tell us whether it has merit or not," Milt Miller, with the Lake Restoration Commission, said.
The ionizer's only being used on a small portion of the lake. a third party group will monitor the results over the next three weeks, then the Lake Restoration Commission will decide if they want to permanently install the ionizer around the lake.
The study isn't costing the Lake Restoration Commission a dime. If the group does go ahead and buy an ionizer it will cost about $300,000.
