Don’t drink the pond scum.
Maybe it isn’t cyanobacteria. Even if it is, maybe it isn’t one of the toxic varieties.
And even if it is, maybe you won’t swallow enough to make you ill.
On the other hand, maybe it is and maybe it is. And then it will make you sick, no maybe about it.
Cyanobacteria — misnamed blue-green algae — is present almost always in almost all bodies of water and usually causes no problem for humans or animals.
But when the right conditions align, it can visibly bloom into high concentrations, such as those that killed two dogs that drank from Anderson Lake in Jefferson County.
It’s unlikely that cyanobacteria killed a dog who played in a stormwater pond near Forks, said Dr. Tom Locke, health officer for Clallam and Jefferson Counties, because of the time that elapsed before the death.
Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous, Locke told the Clallam County Board of Health on Tuesday, and usually cause no trouble. But they can form deadly concentrations if conditions are right, especially these: circumstances:
* The water is calm, allowing the bacteria to float into sunlight.
* The water is relatively warm.
* The water is overly rich in phosphates and nitrogen, which are common chemicals in fertilizers.
