Expert: It’s been in Grand Lake for years
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Carmichael said Grand Lake has been nutrient rich for some time. It’s not a natural lake, but really a low spot that was dammed up and now captures large amounts of runoff from mostly agriculture land.
Scientists know what conditions need to be present for blue-green algae to grow in large numbers like it does in Grand Lake - nitrogen and particularly phosphorous mixed with warm, still water. Summer is the time when blue-green algae blooms are the largest.
Grand Lake continually experiences large algae blooms that have turned the water a dense, cloudy green color and causes fish kills. The most recent fill kill occurred during a hot stretch of weather late last month that killed about 600 fish in mostly channels and some in the main body of the lake. Plummeting oxygen levels caused by blue-green algae using up oxygen caused the fish kills, an Ohio Division of Wildlife official said.
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