Around the end of April, a Cleveland nonprofit will be deploying two “smart” buoys in Erie County to monitor water information in both Sandusky Bay and a Lake Erie tributary.
The buoys are part of a network of buoys that the Cleveland Water Alliance deploys in Lake Erie. The group, which promotes the importance of Lake Erie is northern Ohio’s “freshwater economy,” deploys the buoys in the warm weather months, putting them safely into storage during the winter. The group is now in its fourth year of deploying the buoys.
One of the Erie County buoys will be placed in Old Woman’s Creek, said Ebie Holst, director of Innovation & Clusters for the Cleveland Water Alliance. The other will be offshore of the city in Sandusky Bay.
Each buoy monitors wind speed, water temperature, air temperature, pH levels (measuring how acidic or alkaline the water is), dissolved oxygen, toxins, thermal upwellings, hypoxia (areas of low oxygen) and harmful algal blooms. The data is transmitted in real time and shared with a wide variety of groups that can use it.
The Cleveland Water Alliance works with local officials and academics as it deploys the two Erie County buoys, including Aaron Klein, Sandusky’s public works director, and George Bullerjahn, an emeritus professor at BGSU Firelands who has spent years researching algal blooms in Sandusky Bay.
