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NEWS OF THE MONTH FROM THE TARRYTOWN ENVIRONMENTAL ADVISORY COUNCIL
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AUGUST 2021
WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
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This month, check in on the health of our Tarrytown Lakes. Then rifle through your closet to find some things you don't need anymore, and swap them out! Play a round of pollinator bingo in your garden, and create a delicious cashew pesto to spice up your meatless meals. Then join our meeting. It's Thursday evening, August 5 at 7:00 on Zoom.
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LOVE YOUR VILLAGE
JOINING TEAC IS EASY. JUST COME TO A MEETING
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The Tarrytown Environmental Advisory Council (TEAC) relies on volunteers to keep things moving. We're a fun and engaging group of like-minded citizens working to make Tarrytown's air, land, lakes and river healthier and cleaner.
To exercise COVID-related precautions, our meetings are being held virtually on Zoom. Our next meeting is Thursday, August 5 at 7pm.
Click HERE link to join the meeting.
This month, we'll hear from our committees: Lakes, Landscaping, Energy and Conservation, Trees, Placemaking and Zero Waste.
If any of these committee topics interest you, please feel free to join us!
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UN-GREENING OUR LAKES:
EXPERIMENTS TOWARD REDUCING ALGAE GROWTH IN THE TARRYTOWN LAKES
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BY Maxwel Lee, TEAC Student Volunteer
An aerial view of the Tarrytown Lakes in fall, showing algae growth north of the causeway.
For more than a decade, there has been a severe algae problem within the Tarrytown Reservoirs, which has resulted in an imbalanced ecosystem and an unpleasant aesthetic.
Having lived in Tarrytown for all of my life, I have seen this problem worsen each passing year. My family and I often use the trails that run along the reservoirs and they were a large part of my childhood.
The town reached out to a private contractor, called EverBlue lakes, to find a solution to the algae problem. Though they have started to see some results with the use of a bioblast and dye, it is not a perfect solution.
Invasive algae is a problem in bodies of water such as lakes, ponds, and reservoirs all over the world and there is currently no known natural solution for it. This is why, with the help of a faculty advisor at my school, I decided to start an independent research project on finding a natural solution to eutrophication.
I learned that cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, was the predominant algal species in the reservoirs. Cyanobacteria is a harmful toxin that is associated with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. It is also responsible for harming the ecosystem within the reservoirs as shown by the fish kill in 2018.
After more research, I decided to run an experiment testing barley straw extract as a possible solution, as well as analyzing the effect of phragmites on algal growth (phragmites are an invasive plant that is found in abundance around the reservoirs).
My study yielded positive results: barley straw extract appeared to be a viable solution, and phragmites were found to encourage algal growth (a solution to eutrophication being to trim the phragmites at the beginning of the summer).
I created the extracts by boiling barley straw and phragmites in a pot of water separately. These extracts were then added to beakers containing waters from the reservoirs themselves.
To test the effectiveness of different concentrations of the extracts, different amounts of extracts were added to each beaker. All of the beakers were placed under grow lights to simulate exposure to sunlight and to encourage algal growth.
I decided to use chlorophyll α to measure algal growth. Algae gain their green color from a chlorophyll pigment located in the chloroplasts of their cells. Therefore, a higher amount of chlorophyll would indicate more algae and vice versa.
I measured the chlorophyll α concentration in each beaker weekly using a fluorometer (this device performed photoelectron spectroscopy upon each of the inputted samples to determine the concentration of chlorophyll). The experiment was run for 42 days.
Based on the collected data, I concluded from my experiment that barley straw extract, at certain concentrations, has strong antialgal activities. I also concluded that phragmites concentrations, at all concentrations, strongly encourage algae growth.
Though the chemical mechanisms that both extracts use are yet to be fully discovered, it is clear that both strongly influence algal growth: barley straw extract inhibits while phragmites extract encourages it.
This initial experiment yielded promising results and barley straw extract and phragmites removal could potentially be used in bodies of water around the globe. It could also serve as a potential solution to the algae problem in the Tarrytown Reservoirs.
Both of these solutions are cost-effective and, if implemented properly, will continue to yield positive results.
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WE DID IT:
PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF TAKING THE "PLASTIC FREE JULY" CHALLENGE
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BY Rachel Tieger, TEAC Co-Chair
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