Successfully Detecting and Mitigating Algal Blooms and Taste and Odor Compounds

Journal AWWA Cover Story for July/August 2021 Issue

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toxic algae bloom

After receiving hundreds of complaints, the City of Wichita Falls, Texas, developed a plan for monitoring harmful algal blooms to detect and mitigate taste and odor (T&O) compounds and cyanotoxins.

The plan uses sensory analysis, genus-level or functional-group identification, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry/electron capture detector, data sondes, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) to monitor blooms for T&O issues and cyanotoxins before they become problems.

When blooms are detected, mitigation efforts include source-switching, pretreatment, oxidation, and adsorption, which have eliminated customer complaints following more than 60 years of unmitigated T&O cycles.

Hunter Adams,  Mark Southard,  Sam Sam Reeder,  Frances Buerkens,  Randal L. Hallford,  Keisuke Ikehata,  Daniel K. Nix