Fate and transport of cyanobacteria and associated toxins and taste-and-odor compounds from upstream reservoir releases in the Kansas River, Kansas, September and October 2011

Abstract

Cyanobacteria cause a multitude of water-quality concerns, including the potential to produce toxins and tasteand-odor compounds. Toxins and taste-and-odor compounds may cause substantial economic and public health concerns and are of particular interest in lakes, reservoirs, and rivers that are used for drinking-water supply, recreation, or aquaculture. The Kansas River is a primary source of drinking water for about 800,000 people in northeastern Kansas. Water released from Milford Lake to the Kansas River during a toxic cyanobacterial bloom in late August 2011 prompted concerns about cyanobacteria and associated toxins and taste-and-odor compounds in downstream drinking-water supplies. During September and October 2011 water-quality samples were collected to characterize the transport of cyanobacteria and associated compounds from upstream reservoirs to the Kansas River. This study is one of the first to quantitatively document the transport of cyanobacteria and associated compounds during reservoir releases and improves understanding of the fate and transport of cyanotoxins and taste-and-odor compounds downstream from reservoirs. Milford Lake was the only reservoir in the study area with an ongoing cyanobacterial bloom during reservoir releases. Concentrations of cyanobacteria and associated toxins and taste-and-odor compounds in Milford Lake (upstream from the dam) were not necessarily indicative of outflow conditions (below the dam). Total microcystin concentrations, one of the most commonly occurring cyanobacterial toxins, in Milford Lake were 650 to 7,500 times higher than the Kansas Department of Health and Environment guidance level for a public health warning (20 micrograms per liter) for most of September 2011. By comparison, total microcystin concentrations in the Milford Lake outflow generally were less than 10 percent of the concentrations in surface accumulations, and never exceeded 20 micrograms per liter. The Republican River, downstream from Milford Lake, was the only Kansas River tributary with detectable between measured and expected concentrations were statistically significant. Results, however, indicate that simple dilution models were not sufficient to describe the downstream transport of cyanobacteria and associated compounds in the Kansas River.

Biochemistry and genetics of taste- and odor-producing cyanobacteria

“…Monitoring and management programs are usually more systematic in high risk source waters, and increasingly, include cyanotoxins (e.g. Graham et al, 2008Graham et al, , 2012Hobson et al, 2010). In South Australian reservoirs, for example, the planktonic odor and toxin producing cyanobacterium Dolichospermum circinale is most likely to cause T&O issues during the warmer months from October to April, while in the River Murray, a lentic system, odorous planktonic populations of Dolichospermum, Pseudanabaena and Planktothrix can persist from summer into early winter under conditions of low flow and decreasing water temperatures.…”

“…For systems that include a series of upstream lakes and impoundments, and large waterbodies such as the Great Lakes, this can be challenging (e.g. Burlingame et al, 1986;Hosaka et al, 1995;Graham et al, 2012;Rao et al, 2003;Watson et al, 2007bWatson et al, , 2008. Monitoring and management programs are usually more systematic in high risk source waters, and increasingly, include cyanotoxins (e.g.…”

“…For example, the physical transport of dissolved and particulate geosmin and 2-MIB by large scale down-welling events or river transport played major roles in T&O events affecting millions of consumers in Tokyo, Toronto and the Kansas River drainage (Hosaka et al, 1995;Rao et al, 2003;Graham et al, 2008Graham et al, , 2012. This spatial and temporal complexity has limited our ability to source-track and control T&O events using broad scale empirical data to infer sources and drivers, and as with other harmful metabolites, more effective prediction and control requires a more polyphasic approach that combines this ecosystem-level knowledge with the ecophysiology and expression and production of geosmin and 2-MIB (e.g.…”

Dominant factors associated with microcystins in nine midlatitude, maritime lakes

“…These species may have been present in the lake but at such low densities that they could have been missed during collection or analysis of the samples. It is also possible that MC may have persisted in the water column following release from cyanobacterial cells, as has been observed in other lake systems (Lahti et al 1997, Graham et al 2012, Zastepa et al 2014.…”

A Cyanotoxin Primer for Drinking Water Professionals

“…This type of event occurred in 2011, when the Milford Lake Dam released a cHAB into the Kansas River. In this case, downstream monitoring provided patterns of dissolved MC that implicated the Milford Lake Dam, but few cyanobacteria were present (Graham et al ). In 2015, the third type of event occurred in the Ohio River as it experienced a 600 mi cHAB.…”