Israeli startup BlueGreen Water Technologies, ltd. (“BlueGreen”) has just helped Ohio’s Chippewa Lake, plagued by toxic cyanobacteria (blue green algae) for years, to celebrate one hell of a milestone: 1-year toxic algae-free.
Eyal Harel CEO, BlueGreen Water Technologies
What makes the milestone so groundbreaking, is that in August 2019, Chippewa Lake was the site of the first US deployment of a groundbreaking technology from BlueGreen – a treatment which cleaned the resistant algae in just 24 hours.
The success of the lake’s treatment lies in BlueGreen’s Lake Guard™ algaecide, which floats on the surface of the water to trigger a natural ‘self-destruction’ mechanism within the toxic cyanobacterial population. As a result, toxic species rapidly collapse while “good”, non-toxic species, flourish and reoccupy the ecological niche – resulting in a clean and healthy aquatic ecosystem.
Cyanobacteria, also referred to as blue-green algae, naturally occur in all freshwater ecosystems. However, too many nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen in the waterway can result in conditions that lead to cyanobacterial blooms. These blooms can often be identified as floating mats of bad-smelling, decaying and gelatinous scum (EPA).