No trouble expected from Shiny Ooze heading down River

Holy Moly! What is this crap?

Euglena is not quite a plant and not quite an animal,” said Wayne Probst with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in Calhoun. “It can eat food like an animal, but it also has chloroplasts and can produce food like a plant.”

Link: news.mywebpal.com...

The article starts with a statement about 'no trouble expected', why does that always make me think trouble is on the horizon? This is the same river that provides our city's water for homes, and it sounds like some downright nasty stuff that's heading my way!!! Anybody ever heard of this stuff?

I just googled this stuff, the article in our local paper didn't tell much about it, there is a risk of several different toxins being involved:


Link: images.google.com...://www.naturalresources.nsw.gov.au/water/images/plate5b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.naturalresources.nsw.gov.a u/water/wetlands_facts_algae.shtml&h=267&w=400&sz=27&hl=en&start=1&um=1&usg=__MMziF5Wh3Ndi_splzhRe3_ivUqg=&tbnid=blPUPdvFKilKgM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=124&prev =/images%3Fq%3DEuglena%2Bin%2Briver%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

reply to post by space cadet


That link isn't working correctly, sorry, I can't figure out why. I can't get it to let me post quotes from it! The article says that there are several different toxins that are possible to poison you, even showering with the water is not safe. Those with shellfish allergy can suffer from drinking the water.

Here is one of the pictures:



And another link which goes into greater detail explaining this odd phenomenon (or whatever it is!)

www.naturalresources.nsw.gov.au...

Thanks for that picture! I don't know why it won't let me post the link correctly or post quotes from the article.

This stuff is pretty bad apparently, it can cause all kinds of health problems and makes the water not even safe to bathe in! I haven't found any example of it in the US yet, only in Austsralia. But I did read that it is common after a drought, this area has been in an extreme drought for a year now, and this summer has brought a lot of rain, they haven't lifted our water restrictions yet though.