THE owners of the Lake Bolac Caravan are sick of blue-green algae in the lake and have floated an idea to solve the problem.
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Lorraine Deutsch has been running the caravan park with husband Frank for nine years.
Blue-green algae has been a persistent issue the whole time, and has impacted tourism to the lake.
But Mrs Deutsch may have found a potential solution to the problem.
“We've read lots of reports on the internet of floating islands in the waters that are subject to blue-green algae, and they put certain plants in that suck up the nutrients and help prevent the algae from growing,” she said.
Known as floating treatment wetlands, the wetlands float around the water and suck up the nutrients that would otherwise feed the algae, providing a chemical-free management option.
Read more: Blue-green algae has been found in Lake Bolac.
The algae is naturally present in water but the CSIRO advises that in the right conditions it can dominate and ‘bloom’ when:
- nutrient levels, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen are sufficient to support the population growth
- the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorous concentration is low
- water is still and turbulence is low (lack of mixing)
- weather patterns are stable for a week or so
- weather is warm (although blooms can occur in cooler weather too).
Blue-green algae sucks up the oxygen in the water, endangering the lives of fish and other life who become oxygen starved, and can make people who come into contact with it quite sick.
But Mrs Deutsch said despite taking the idea to Parks Victoria, who respond to blue-green algae outbreaks (but otherwise do not manage the water), she had not had any luck.
“We’ve been trying for years to get something done about it, as well as the midges, which breed in the bottom of the lake,” she said.
“No one seems interested.
“They’ve been doing it (using the islands) in Europe for years. Frank is from Germany and has been here for 50 years and they were investigating it in Germany then.
“It has worked elsewhere in Australia so we can’t see why it wouldn’t work in this lake.”
Mr Deutsch said use of the islands was increasingly common.
“It has been used world-wide and it has been used in Melbourne, so they can’t plead ignorance,” he said.
Parks Victoria area chief ranger Siobhan Rogan said that the organisation was aware of the islands but they were not an option for Lake Bolac.
“Initial advice we’ve received is that because of Lake Bolac’s shallow depth and large size of 1400 hectares, floating treatment wetlands would be ineffective,” she said.
“Such concepts would require consultation with the catchment manager, Glenelg Hopkins CMA.”
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