europe, page-11

In an earlier post, I referred to an article in the Canberra Times about problematic blue-green algae in lakes around the ACT.

A follow-up report overnight on that situation, also from the Canberra Times, unfortunately doesn't make for the most encouraging reading. It sounds like the ACT government has given Phoslock the short-shrift.

The relevant extracts from the article below are below :

...An ambitious proposal to diminish the ACT's blue-green algae plague would see five or six shipping containers set up on Lake Burley Griffin's shore at a cost of about $600,000 each.

Last summer saw the territory's lakes transformed into swirling cesspits of the matted, potentially harmful "cyanobacteria" by what experts have described as some of the worst blooms on record.

Nano Bubble Technologies is just one of the companies hoping to counter the problem, vying for the attention of the ACT government as it considers investing in algae antidotes in the territory's next budget.

The article then goes on to describe the Nano Bubble aeration technology, as well as the tests being conducted in Lake Tuggeranong by experts from the University of Canberra as to decide which of four solutions is best placed to combat the blue-green algae.

However, Phoslock is not one of the solutions being tested, as is made clear later in the article:

...Managing director of Phoslock Environmental Technologies Robert Schuitema, which markets the CSIRO-formulated solution Phoslock, says it has been effective in about 350 projects around the world.

Phoslock is a type of clay that draws phosphorus, an enabler of blue-green algae, out of water. Mr Schuitema said the company had pitched the product to the National Capital Authority in the past as a solution to Lake Burley Griffin's blue-green algae problem but was rejected because of a lack of budget.

"For $2 million we would have absorbed all the phosphates in the lake and we would have reset the environmental clock for a number of years," Mr Schuitema said.

"I believe they should be going for a tried and true technology."

A National Capital Authority spokeswoman said it had not considered Phoslock because it was a temporary solution to getting rid of blue-green algae.

"The [authority] would have to weigh up the value and costs associated with treating such a large body of water regularly, particularly for areas within the [lake] that are not always affected by blue-green algae," the spokeswoman said.

Mr Schuitema said an application on the Serpentine lake in London's Hyde Park lasted five years before it had to have another, lesser dose, and the situation would be similar in the ACT's lakes.

The suggestion by that Government spokeswoman that Phoslock was a temporary solution seems disingenuous. Apart from the Serpentine example cited above, you could also note the results from the treatment of the Otterstedter See in Germany, where a Bentophos application back around 2012 was able to keep the lake blue green algae free for six years, as noted in an article from Germany last year.

It is curious that while Phoslock seems to garner much enthusiasm in places like Quebec, in in its country of origin it often seems to be subject to this type of causal dismissal.

The article does highlight how important it is for this company to try to work on ways to reduce the cost of Phoslock treatments, as cost is frequently cited as one reason as to why it gets knocked back as a treatment option.

I don't entirely disagree with the pessimistic sentiment expressed in recent posts, in the short term at least. It does seem that company is running out of time to secure major projects before the 'blue green algae' season in the northern hemisphere arrives.

Having said that, there might still be some reason for optimism. I did a quick 'Google Trends' search for the term Phoslock before writing this post, and as can be seen below, over the period of the past 30 days, there does seem to have been an awful lot of searches for 'Phoslock' originating from Germany and Canada.



I keep tabs on the Google Trends data for Phoslock searches, and those numbers from Germany and Canada are much higher than what you normally see in a 30 day search.

Possibly, some councils in Germany and Canada and have been sitting on their hands over the past several months, plagued by indecision as to the best treatment option to prevent a recurrence of the problematic algal blooms that caused so much angst last year, and now, as D-Day approaches, they are frantically searching for solutions.

Hopefully, as summer nears in Europe and North America, we might pick up a large number of small projects from these countries at the last minute.