Ballina Shire Council has just issued a Red Alert for Lake Ainsworth.
Water should NOT be used for primary recreation. Users should obey all signage erected by Council.
Slicks and scums should be avoided when present as they are areas of concentrated algae and may present a health risk.
A Red Level Action Mode is in place when >50,000 cells of Microcystis aeruginosa are present or a biovolume of all toxin-producing cyanobacteria exceeds 4 mm3/L or if the total of all cyanobacteria (toxic and non toxic) exceeds 10 mm3/L or scums are present for long periods.
At Red Mode, local and health authorities should be contacted to assess risks to recreational users and appropriate measures should be taken to warn water users.
There needs to be more than a Red Alert.
Blue/Green Algae flourishes when there is heat, and we are not into summer yet. Algae flowers in December, January and February, so it is not the heat. A pollutant has to be tipped into the stormwater drain to be this bad. There needs to be an investigation of just where the pollutant is coming from. Something has happened that is not usual in the water.
Slicks and scums should always be avoided. Particularly LNP varieties.