Team:Dundee/HumanPractice/PoliticalCampaign

The M.O.P Campaign

It has been an incredible summer in much of the UK this year and the sun has been shining even here in Scotland. Just outside Dundee in mid-July a record breaking temperature of 28.9C (84F) was reported. The weather has been great for our vitamin D levels but it has been very bad for our local ponds, reservoirs and lochs. After reading multiple stories in the local news about “hazardous” algal blooms springing up around the city we decided to speak to the Senior Countryside Ranger George Potts. George worked at Clatto Reservoir in Dundee for many years and you can find an interview with George and a case study of the reservoir here (LINK TO CLATTO PAGE). Clatto has been affected by algal blooms for several years and recreational water sport activities have now ceased entirely. This has resulted in a decline in visitor numbers to the surrounding country park, thus, impacting on the local economy.

We specifically asked George about why there are sign posts up at Clatto urging the public to avoid entering the water. We were told that the water has been deemed as potentially unsafe. He explained a little bit about how the water is tested and what the regulations are outlining water safety in regards to algal blooms. It turns out that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is responsible for testing water affected by algal blooms. The tests involve calculating the number of cyanobacterial cells per ml of water. SEPA follows the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation that a concentration of 20,000 cells per ml has a relatively low probability of causing adverse health effects and a concentration of 100,000 cells per ml has a moderate probability of causing adverse health effects. SEPA tests the water at Clatto once a month (SEPA do offer additional testing) and having failed the test Clatto has been sign posted as unsafe. However, due to the erratic behaviour of cyanobacteria the abundance of the organisms can fluctuate on an hourly basis, so a monthly test may not be ideal. Additionally, it has been estimated that for each algal bloom there is a 60-70 % chance that it is actually toxic. These current regulations are of course in place to keep the public and their pets as safe as possible but we question whether the regulations are entirely appropriate.

Our MOP device (LINK to part of website about MOP) and detector (LINK to part of website about Detector) aims to deal with this problem by targeting the toxin specifically instead of the cells. Additionally, our Moptopus device aims to give real-time information to track the dynamic process of algal bloom formation.