Tania Datta and Ramesh Goel have seen many dead birds in the Great Salt Lake and they want to prevent the numbers from going up.
Central Davis Sewer District awarded Goel, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, a $60,000 contract to study bacteria and toxins in the lake that may be causing the birds’ deaths.
Goel’s research is centered at Gilbert and Farmington Bay where he is using microbiology principles to address the contaminants in the samples he has collected. One of the contaminants raising concern is cyanobacteria, which is also known as blue-green algae.
The algae uses nutrients in the lake to grow and can be seen on the lake like a mat covering the surface. The toxin is produced inside the algae’s cells and is released when the cell dies. The toxins then impact small organisms in the lake, which birds eat.
Cyanobacteria occurs naturally and is present in large amounts in the world’s oceans. However, because Farmington Bay is about 0.8 meters in depth, the algae concentration has increased.
“There are incidents of birds dying there.” Goel said. “If you go, you will find dead birds there all over the place.”
The birds have died of botulism, a disease that attacks the nervous system, but there is not a solid link between the disease and the algae.
Goel said he hopes to find that connection.
Research at the lake has been difficult this year because of its high salinity. If salinity remains high, research may be put on hold until the lake is more diluted.
“The wind blows and it changes the hydrodynamics of the lake,” Goel said. “It’s not one contaminant we are dealing with. It’s going to take some time.”
Leland Myers, general manager at the Central Davis Sewer District, said the main concern in Farmington Bay is the phosphorus discharge found in the lake, which comes from urban, industrial center and sewage runoff.
The cyanobacteria can be harmful to humans if digested in large amounts, Myers said.
In the lab, Datta, a doctoral student in environmental engineering, has noticed that the more phosphorus found in the lake, the more cyanobacteria algae grow.
If all phosphorus were removed from sewage runoff from a local treatment plant, area residents would need to pay an extra $10 to $50 a month in their bill, Myers said.
But according to Goel, the algae problem can be fixed.
“If we limit the input of other contaminants and nutrients then we can control the growth of bacteria,” he said. “So there are indirect ways of controlling the bacteria.”
To help with the effort, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set up a panel regarding the Great Salt Lake and is working with the Utah Division of Water Quality to further study the problem.
“Utah is doing a nice job now and they are putting things forth to make sure something is done about the Great Salt Lake,” Goel said.
Jarad ReddekoppDoctoral student Tania Datta tests water samples on Aug. 31 collected from the Great Salt Lake for high levels of cyanobacteria. The bacteria effects small organisms around the lake, which are later eaten by birds.