The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has teamed up with NASA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Geological Survey to create a new "early warning system" for freshwater toxic algal blooms.
The system employs satellite data to create a detection system that could protect Americans from the threat of these blooms. These satellites gather color data from scans of freshwater bodies located around the country. Algae can multiply rapidly under certain environmental conditions, creating a toxic bloom that can kill wildlife and cause serious illness in humans who come in contact with it or consume contamanted drinking water and shellfish.
"Observing harmful algae is critical to understanding, managing, and forecasting these blooms," said Holly Bamford, acting assistant secretary of commerce for conservation and management, and deputy NOAA administrator. "This collaboration will assure that NOAA's efforts will assist the coastal and inland public health officials and managers across the country to distribute this information to the community in an easily understandable fashion, making them more resilient to environmental events."
The $3.6 million research project could save an estimated $64 million in "additional drinking water treatment, loss of recreational water usage, and decline in waterfront real estate values."
"EPA researchers are developing important scientific tools to help local communities respond quickly and efficiently to real-time water quality issues and protect drinking water for their residents," said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. "Working with other federal agencies, we are leveraging our scientific expertise, technology and data to create a mobile app to help water quality managers make important decisions to reduce negative impacts related to harmful algal blooms, which have been increasingly affecting our water bodies due to climate change."
The new network will be based on NASA ocean satellite sensor technologies that were originally created to study algae growth in the ocean. They work by detecting the color of the upper layers of the water.
"The vantage point of space not only contributes to a better understanding of our home planet, it helps improve lives around the world," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "We're excited to be putting NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration to work protecting public health and safety."
