Lee County’s plan to treat blue-green algae in Little Lake Michigan Canal

Lee County takes steps to combat blue-green algae blossom in the Little Lake Michigan Canal.

The Little Lake Michigan Canal wasn’t a pretty site on September 8. But then, blue-green water technologies went to work.

WINK News was able to watch a demonstration designed to break up the algae.

The demonstration involved a product called ‘Lake Guard Oxy.’ They sprinkled it across the cyanobacteria-infected area.

It’s a hydrogen peroxide-based product but is different from the usual peroxide products because it stays afloat and doesn’t sink into the water column.

Lucia Ross, BlueGreen Water Technologies Chief Marketing Officer said, “So we’re just trying to kill the cyanobacteria. And you do that by having the product float on top of the water. It triggers a biological process called programmed cell death, and it will kill that bacteria and take it to the bottom holding in the sediment and keep it there.”

After adding the hydrogen peroxide-based product the green film on top of the water starts to separate and then the chunks turned brown which means it is working.

This is something Doug Gills is never too happy to see from his lanai on Little Lake Michigan Canal.

“It came in, it started it was just like little patches of green. And then it got more green and more green. And then there’s been days where it looks like it’s just little floating islands or something out there that are just kind of gunky and nasty looking,” Gill said.

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