Toxic algae health alert at Johnson Lake lifted

Post date: Jul 16, 2010 10:35:54 PM

Friday, July 16, 2010 ; Kearney HUB on-line at http://www.kearneyhub.com

JOHNSON LAKE — The health alert caused by toxic blue-green algae at Johnson Lake has been lifted.

The Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality said the readings for the algae had dropped to 7.77 parts per billion in its sample this week.

Two successive weeks of readings below 20 ppb are necessary to lift a ban on swimming in a lake.

The sample was taken at the swimming beach in the southeast corner of the lake, which is part of the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission recreation area.

A health alert was posted and the beach closed because of toxic algae from a routine weekly test with a reading of 21.37 ppb that was taken June 28. The following week’s test, taken July 5, was 14.21 ppb.

For 19 weeks before June 28, the sample readings were one part per billion.