JUNCTION CITY — The algae has slowly progressed as the northern half of the lake was placedmilford lake two under a warning three weeks ago. Last week KDHE kept the northern half of the lake under warning, and placed the southern half under an advisory. Now the warning is lake wide.
R.J. Harms, Corps of Engineers Project Manager at Milford Lake, explained toxin levels came back higher in both the northern and southern parts of the lake this week.
“We had folks out yesterday on the lake taking some water samples and they came across numerous areas on the lake where the green algae and the cell counts were really high. You could see green scum on the surface of the lake, and that wasn’t restricted to the north half of the lake, that was in areas of the southern half of the lake to,” Harms said.
Under a warning any contact with the water (swimming, skiing, tubing, jet skiing) is prohibited. Boating and fishing is still allowed despite the warning.
Harms did mention that so far this summer he has not heard of anyone becoming ill from contact with the toxic algae,”from any pet impacts or children and humans. Fortunately for us that’s a good thing but you know the potential is there.”
KDHE will be back out to test again Monday with results expected later in the week.