Griffith City Council extends trial water treatment at Lake Wyangan

Published on 04 February 2025

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Griffith City Council has extended a treatment trial at Lake Wyangan.

The initial 18-week trial using AlgaEnviro – Diatomix at Lake Wyangan (South Lake) commenced in early September 2024 and was completed on 10 January 2025.

Due to available remaining supply of Diatomix, Council has decided to extend the trial for an additional 15 weeks.

Given the long-term nature of this treatment, full stabilisation may take 6-12 months. If successful, Council plans to expand the initiative to include North Lake Wyangan.

Griffith Mayor, Councillor Doug Curran said, the use of AlgaEnviro – Diatomix is part of Council’s ongoing commitment to enhance water quality at the Lake.

"At this stage, we are cautiously optimistic about the potential of Diatomix to improve the condition of the Lake by reducing blue-green algae,” Councillor Curran said.

“I think the hardest thing is that we all need to be patient and allow time for the treatment to work before we can really assess its effectiveness.

“We’ve been advised that it could be up to 12 months before we know if this treatment is doing what we need it to do.”

Co-founder of AlgaEnviro, Simon Tannock said, Diatomix naturally creates conditions in the water that promote the ecosystem to become healthy.

“The data to date shows that the Lake is responding to the treatment.  As can sometimes be the case, the Lake is looking worse before it gets better,” he said

“The way the Lake is changing is similar to the way other lakes have responded when first treated with Diatomix.  The long-term outcome is expected to be very good for the Lake, as it does not have problematic high nutrient inflows.

Improving the all-round health of the Lake will be a matter of continuing to treat at the correct level so that it reaches a balanced and healthy state with few blue-green algae blooms, and healthy fish stocks and bird populations.

Lake Wyangan is currently on red alert, with residents warned not to undertake recreational activities where they may be coming into direct contact with the water such as swimming.

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