WSSC Opens Duckett Reservoir in Laurel

In time for Labor Day weekend Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) lifted the recreational water contact health advisory for their T. Howard Duckett Reservoir in Laurel. WSSC reports they performed extensive monitoring and testing and found that algal concentrations had fallen below advisory thresholds,

The advisory was put in place on August 21 when WSSC announced that they had detected high concentrations of blue-green algae in the T. Howard Duckett and Triadelphia Reservoirs.  The recreational water contact health advisory remains in effect for the Triadelphia Reservoir.

Algae blooms also called dead zones form in summers when higher temperatures reduce the oxygen holding capacity of the water, the air is still, and especially in years of heavy rains. Only certain species of blue-green algae produce microcystine or cyanobacteria toxins, the toxic algae.  Toxic algae can lead to the poisoning of fish, shellfish, birds, livestock, domestic pets and other aquatic organisms that can lead to human health impact from eating fish or shellfish exposed to toxins as well as drinking water contaminated by toxins.