Another test project under way at Grand Lake

CELINA — Efforts to save Grand Lake St. Marys continue to move forward. On Tuesday, the state proceeded with a pilot project promised during a visit by Gov. Ted Strickland at the end of July.

Officials at the Ohio Department of Agriculture confirmed Tuesday that a Marysville company has begun applying silica to the lake. State and company officials said the introduction of the silica is meant to encourage positive algae growth to suppress blooms of harmful algae.

“From our end, we think the research done by Algaeventure Systems is very promising. This is something that we hope will be a relatively inexpensive, natural, low-impact solution to cleaning up the lake,” said Kaleigh Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture. “The Department of Agriculture is very hopeful that the algae pilot project will provide positive impacts to the region, certainly encouraging a healthy lake and productive fisheries.”

Frazier said the agency is funding the $25,000 price tag for the test.

David Coho, vice president of business development for Algaeventure Systems, said the company began putting down the silica, which is a type of sand, in a 2.5 acre plot in the northwest corner of the lake on Tuesday.

“When healthy diatom algae grows it will overpopulate and squeeze out the cyanobacteria,” Coho said. “Healthy diatom algae also is a great source for the food web. It should help remediation and cleaning up the lake.”

Toxins produced from the blooms of cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, prompted state officials to issue a no contact advisory with the lake for most of the summer. Boating was finally permitted again late last week.

State officials have also said they intend to test the application of aluminum sulfate, or alum, in the lake. Alum is intended to bind to the abundant phosphorus that feeds the harmful algae and sink it to the bottom where it would be unavailable to feed the blue-green algae.