TAKEAWAY
Harmful algal blooms are increasing across Utah, leading to a water quality crisis that endangers human health, the environment, and economies throughout the state.
Utah is facing a serious, and even deadly, water quality concern: widespread and proliferating harmful algal blooms (HABs). A growing number of ponds, lakes, reservoirs, streams, and rivers in Utah are developing HABs, and blooms are beginning earlier in the year, lasting longer, and appearing at higher elevations.
Harmful algal blooms are caused not by algae but by a phylum of bacteria called cyanobacteria that produces harmful toxins (cyanotoxins) that can cause skin, brain, and organ damage or failure and can even result in immediate death for wildlife and pets. Cyanotoxins are not only present in the water, but they also accumulate in fish tissue and can become airborne. Contact with cyanotoxins is extremely dangerous for humans and animals, and routes of exposure to cyanotoxins include ingesting contaminated water or food, inhalation of airborne toxins, and direct skin and eye contact.
The total number of HABs in Utah is increasing at a rate of 4.5 new HABs per year. In 2022, HABs were observed in 36 waterbodies, marking a 50-percent increase in the last 5 years, and a 35-fold increase since the start of monitoring in 2014 (Figure 2E.1). Notably, HAB occurrences in Utah are increasing rapidly in reservoirs, lakes, and rivers and are developing at higher elevations, signaling that drinking water, irrigation source water, and recreational waters are at risk.
The problem? Excess nitrogen and phosphorus entering waterbodies alongside drought, warming temperatures, and elevated CO2 in the atmosphere. The solution? Reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from urban and agricultural runoff, wastewater, and fossil fuel combustion, in addition to establishing nitrogen and phosphorus standards for lakes, reservoirs, and rivers.
