MANTUA, Utah — As temperatures warm up, dangerous toxic algae blooms become a top-of-mind issue for Utah officials and recreators wanting to enjoy the state's many bodies of water.
But a new organization is removing the algae and the tons of carbon dioxide that comes with it, keeping Utah water safe during the summer season.
At the Mantua Reservoir, Blue Green Water Technologies put in hours of work restoring the water to a pristine, sparkling oasis.
The reservoir has hosted fishing tournaments, waterski competitions and swimming but has been used less in recent years because of harmful algal blooms.
Brigham City partnered with Blue Green to take care of the problem.
The company used a product similar to hydrogen peroxide, which is used to disinfect a cut.
"So what we're doing [is] oxygenation," explained President Jan Spin. "Oxygenating the water, which was creating the oxidative stress on the colony."
Within days of the treatment at Mantua Reservior, all the toxic algae was gone, leaving sparkling clean water in its place.
"Basically, what happens is, once you reset the clock from mother nature and you restore biodiversity, Mother Nature will take over its own ecological balance," Spin said.
The treatment was done at no cost to Brigham City but in the future, Spin said corporate clients or the private sector may pay the cost, looking to purchase credits to offset their carbon footprint.
BlueGreen is hoping to use the same process on a large scale during red tide algae blooms in the ocean.
They call this a new milestone in the global quest to remove the harmful CO2 choking our atmosphere.
BlueGreen has a number of other water bodies on their list, including looking at Utah Lake in a few weeks to see how effective their product will be there.
