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HCB-1

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Interactive Tools
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Monitoring Tool
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1. Overview
1. Overview
1.1 Our Goals in Developing This Guidance
2. Using this Guidance for Cyanobacterial Bloom Response
3. Introduction to the Cyanobacteria
3. Introduction to the Cyanobacteria
3.1 What Are Cyanobacteria?
3.2 Health, Environment, and Economic Impacts
3.3 Cyanobacteria Biological Functions and Environmental Interactions
3.4 Understanding Your Water Body and Developing an HCB Management Plan
4. Monitoring
4. Monitoring
4.1 HCB Monitoring
4.2 Developing a Cyanobacteria Monitoring Program
4.3 Approaches to Monitoring
4.4 Selecting Appropriate Sample Collection Methods for Your Lake’s HCB Event
4.5 Water Quality Monitoring to Support Cyanobacteria Management
4.6 Examples of Recreational and Drinking Water Monitoring Approaches for Cyanobacteria
5. Strategies for Communication and Response Planning for HCBs
5. Strategies for Communication and Response Planning for HCBs
5.1 Immediate Communication and Response Tasks
5.2 Build, Improve, and Maintain Response Capacity
6. Management and Control Strategies for HCBs
6. Management and Control Strategies for HCBs
6.1 Summary Table
7. Strategies for Use in Nutrient Management
7. Strategies for Use in Nutrient Management
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Environmental Regulatory and Nonregulatory/Voluntary Programs for Nutrient Control
7.3 Source Identification and Prioritization
7.4 Linking Nutrients to Land Use
7.5 Point Sources
7.6 Nonpoint Sources
7.7 Water Quality Trading
8. Recommendations
8. Recommendations
8.1 Overall understanding of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins and their potential impacts
8.2 HCB Monitoring
8.3 Strategic Communication and Response Planning
8.4 HCB Management and Control Strategies
8.5 HCB Prevention Through Nutrient Reduction
References
Appendix
Appendix A. Visual Guide to Common Harmful Cyanobacteria
Appendix B. North American Lake Management Society survey on HCB notification/outreach
Appendix C. Management Strategy Fact Sheets
C.1 Management Strategy Fact Sheets
C.2 Cost Compilation for Several Mitigation Strategies
C.3 Abridged Strategies
Appendix D. Team Contacts
Appendix E. Glossary
Appendix F. Acronyms
Additional Information
Acknowledgments
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Strategies for Preventing and Managing Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms (HCB-1)

Source: Wyoming DEQ

Cyanobacteria are microscopic, photosynthetic organisms that can be found naturally in all aquatic systems. Under certain conditions, cyanobacteria can multiply and become very abundant, discoloring the water throughout a water body or accumulating at the surface. These occurrences are known as blooms. Cyanobacteria may produce potent toxins (cyanotoxins) that pose a threat to human health. Cyanobacteria can also harm wildlife and domestic animals, aquatic ecosystems, and local economies by disrupting drinking water systems and source waters, recreational uses, commercial and recreational fishing, and property values.

This guidance is focused on strategies that you may use in response to cyanobacterial blooms that are found in freshwater aquatic environments, including lakes, streams, rivers, reservoirs, ponds, and freshwater-influenced estuaries. It is intended to help you select monitoring, excess nutrient reduction, in-lake management, and communication approaches that may be suitable for use in your water body. We provide interactive tools to help you explore options in monitoring, management, and nutrient reduction. Our Visual Guide will help you recognize cyanobacteria and other common aquatic phenomena that can be confused with them. 

Together, this information, interactive tools, and embedded resources will help you respond to and manage for cyanobacteria.

ITRC has created two guidance documents, one focused primarily on planktonic HCBs, HCB-1, and the other focused primarily on benthic HCBs, HCB-2. While each document has a primary focus, each document has sections that are applicable to all HCBs, including several interactive tools. The framework shows how the two guidance documents are related and where they overlap.

Framework of HCB

Harmful Cyanobacterial Bloom (HCB) Training

The Harmful Cyanobacterial Bloom team developed an online training to accompany this guidance.

  • Register for the next HCB training
  • HCB Training Archive

The training video below, Learn to Identify Cyanobacteria Blooms – published with help from the Lake Champlain Basin Program – identifies and describes different types of cyanobacteria and offers guidance on best management and safety practices involving harmful blooms.

Published by the Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council, March 2021

Permission is granted to refer to or quote from this publication with the customary acknowledgment of the source. The suggested citation for this document is as follows:

ITRC (Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council). 2021. Strategies for Preventing and Managing Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms (HCB-1). Washington, D.C.: Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council, HCB Team. www.itrcweb.org.

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