TAMPA, Fla. — If you might be making plans on touring the Hillsborough River, you could understand a brand new addition in one section.
The City of Tampa put in two new buoys Monday, however they are now not your reasonable buoys. These buoys are supplied with era to cut back blue-green algae in the water.
Algae strikes to the water floor for photosynthesis to develop and to the ground of the water column for vitamins. The LG Sonic buoy makes use of ultrasonic sound waves to dam algae’s get right of entry to to daylight & vitamins. Algae sinks to the ground and die off with out liberating toxins.
“This is going to reduce that. And it’s going to help us maintain the algae growth that we usually see at this time of the year in the river,” stated John Ring, the City of Tampa Water Production Manager.
Each buoy is in a position to generating sound waves inside of a 500 ft radius to assist deal with algae enlargement not unusual this time of yr.
“These buoys will project that sound right up to the banks. And that’ll prevent the algae from growing and proliferating. That’s gonna be the way we’re able to control a bloom from taking place. This is gonna help us keep this and manage it and keep it under control, rather than using an algaecide,” Ring stated.
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Although new to Tampa, the buoys don’t seem to be a brand new piece of era, in line with Barry Rosen, a professor with the Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University.
“I hear from colleagues that it does work in smaller confined areas where the ultrasound can interfere with the gas vesicles and keep blue-green algae, cyanobacterial, to the lower part of the water column,” Rosen stated.
However, Rosen stated the era is not as sound in some our bodies of water.
“If it’s a moving water body like the Hillsborough River, it’s a little bit more problematic because those organisms can escape the influence,” he stated.
The results at the Hillsborough River will probably be below a microscope for the following two years. The buoys are a part of a pilot program funded by way of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Over the following two years, the town will take a look at the 2 places. The crew will gather information and samples, then examine how the ultrasonic works in comparison to the unique approach, copper sulfate.
“It’s a non-invasive way of controlling the algae, rather than applying an algaecide through the river. And typically with that, we’re going out in our boats and applying it sometimes day or, or every other day basis,” Ring added.
The era can observe more than one issues price finding out in the water, even fine-tuning tactics to evolve to current algae.
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“The ultrasonic buoys allow us to change frequency of the ultrasonics. So depending on the type of bloom or algae species, we may be encountering, we can adjust the ultrasonics to help keep that under control. So it will be something that we’ll be continuously monitoring,” Ring defined.
The final objective is to stay algal blooms away and high quality water flowing in the course of the town.
“Water quality wise, this allows us to maintain a nice steady quality of water entering into the facility. And typically, with algae, algae blooms, we have systems inside the facility that will eliminate the taste and odor that is a residual from algae being present. This will be kind of a belt and suspenders approach to us. So it’ll help us always maintain a good quality of taste and odor in the water,” he persevered.