A reservoir in Utah has been transformed from a pea-soupy mess of harmful algal blooms into a clear blue body of pristine water perfect for migratory birds and boaters.
The hero behind the transformation is an extraordinary company called BlueGreen Water Tech which has invented an environmentally friendly algicide that causes mass cell death among the mats of gooey green cyanobacteria.
They fund these pond and lake cleaning projects by selling carbon credits to companies looking to offset the effects of their greenhouse gas emissions, and the above photograph comes from the large, Mantua Reservoir in Utah, which was cleaned to the benefit of the public at no cost to them, or the state.
“Harmful algal blooms infect 60 million lakes around the world, ultimately rendering them dead aquatic zones. They also hold an untapped potential to remove 5-15 gigatons of carbon each year,” Eyal Harel, CEO of BlueGreen, told Carbon Herald.
The potential to trap carbon comes after their patented LakeGuard product made from sodium percarbonate releases hydrogen peroxide, a chemical that has long been used safely as an algicide, when it comes into contact with water and causes an auto-catalytic cell-death cascade among the algae.
“What happens is that these harmful algae blooms become a giant carbon sink. And by us sinking that carbon to the sediment level and then allowing it to go back into the natural processes, we restore the biodiversity, and more importantly, restore photosynthesis,” said Jan Spin, recently-appointed President of BlueGreen’s Americas Division.
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The restoration process was undertaken by the Utah Waterbodies Restoration Program, which in turn was carried out in partnership with Brigham City, Utah, at no cost to the city because of the 12,913 tonnes of carbon credits that were sold to fund the clean-up of Mantua Reservoir.
Whether it’s helping a corporation improve its ESG scores or allowing its shareholders to feel they are making an environmentally responsible investment, for locals like Paxton Isom visiting from Brigham City, it’s all about the clarity of the water.
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Speaking to KSL TV, he said that he remembers how disgusting the usual pea soup color was at the end of August.
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