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Water director updates council on lake recovery and standing by for possible algaecide treatment
Summary
City water staff reported Lake Bloomington is flowing over the spillway, Lake Evergreen is near normal, and Illinois EPA advised the city is on the backside of a harmful algal bloom (HAB) event. Staff described prior treatments, monitoring results and a contingency resolution to authorize additional treatment if needed.
The Bloomington Water Director, Ed Andrews, updated the City Council on lake levels, water-quality monitoring, and a potential contingency treatment to address a recent harmful algal bloom (HAB) event. Andrews reported Lake Bloomington is flowing over the spillway and Lake Evergreen is slightly below normal pool; he said finished-water microcystin levels have been low and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) characterizes the system as being “on the backside” of the event.
Andrews told council the utility began a temporary powdered activated carbon (PAC) feed on March 3 and has added “just a little over 60 tons of material” to date. The water utility performed an algaecide treatment earlier in the season and treated Lake Evergreen after switching pumping to Bloomington on April 7. Andrews said a test spike on April 28 prompted readiness for a second treatment; IEPA requested one more weekly sample and then three monthly samples to wind down agency monitoring.
Andrews explained health thresholds discussed with IEPA: he said 0.3 microcystin units is the level that would trigger a drinking-water restriction for children under 6 and pregnant women. He reported the city’s finished water has not exceeded 25% of that level and is currently around 4% of the action level for finished water. The city also continues taste-and-odor sampling (geosmin and MIB) and is transitioning some monitoring in-house while IEPA continues lab testing in Springfield.
Staff described additional monitoring tools deployed on the lakes, including buoys reporting live data to the Hydrosphere cloud and ongoing pH and dissolved-oxygen boat checks. Andrews said the IEPA’s regional field engineer, Matt Talbot, coordinated agency communications and Chris Johnson at the IEPA lab handled laboratory work for microcystin and related compounds.
City staff recommended a resolution authorizing an additional treatment if monitoring demonstrates a need; councilmember Montney moved to approve the item and a second was recorded. The transcript shows the motion and second on the floor but does not include a recorded roll-call vote in the supplied excerpt.
