OREGON, Ohio — When most watergoers see a buoy, they think of it as a navigational marker.
But in Oregon, the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center hosted a training on Wednesday for local water experts to learn about the latest "smart buoys" that will be sent out into various locations in Lake Erie during the upcoming summer season.
The buoys, which look similar to a regular buoy, have solar-powered sensors inside them that are designed to track important water safety features such as pH and toxin levels.
The sensors are going to be important for experts, too, especially with algal bloom season approaching.
"Each year there's a harmful algal bloom that occurs in Lake Erie, and that bloom can produce toxins," said Ken Gibbons, an environmental scientist for LimnoTech, an environmental science and engineering firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich. "The water treatment plants are able to filter out those toxins, but it helps them to get advanced notice of how much algae went into the plant."
When powered, the solar energy allows a device inside the buoy, called a sonde, to track the water parameters. The data from that is transmitted back to databases at local water treatment plants, the Lake Erie Center and other locations.
"You can actually get live data, so that way we actually know what's going on outside on the lake," said Amber Beecher, the field research crew leader for the Lake Erie Center. "That way, we can see what is fluctuating so we can get different water-quality parameters."
The primary goal of the buoys is to track water safety levels. But another big aid they will offer experts is the ability to be more consistent in their communication.
"That's important so that we know that, if out on the water, if there's something going on, we can let the water treatment plants know," Beecher said. "But then also if our sondes have pretty much the same parameters, then we can all know at the same time."
Participants in this year's training included researchers from Toledo, Ohio State University and Bowling Green State University, as well as water treatment plant operators in Toledo, Oregon, Defiance, Sandusky, Ottawa and Huron.
The Lake Erie Center plans to send out its buoy in the summer into Maumee Bay State Park and will conduct biweekly cruises to study algal blooms.