After dog's death, no Russian River swimming ban over Labor Day weekend

The Russian River will remain open to swimmers and other revelers during Labor Day weekend, but authorities said Friday that river visitors should leave their dogs at home after they confirmed that a neurotoxin produced by blue-green algae caused the death of a golden retriever that swam in the waterway last weekend.

Sonoma County health officials said they are hoping to spare any more pets from the swift, awful death experienced by a San Jose couple’s stricken dog a week ago.

Children are at high risk as well, authorities said, and should be monitored closely so they do not consume any water or play in blue-green algae, small amounts of which have been found in part of the river this season, according to Karen Holbrook, the county’s deputy public health officer.

“The key exposure mechanism that we’re concerned about is ingesting the water and the algae,” Holbrook said, “and because dogs like to go in the water, they’re not very discriminatory about what water they go in. … That’s why we’re targeting them for the highest level of concern and the highest restrictions.”

Holbrook’s announcement Friday afternoon dampened anxiety among business owners, visitors and residents who endured uncertainty through much of the day as public health, parks and water quality officials wrestled over whether to restrict river access on the eve of what’s normally a busy, prosperous weekend on the river.

Given the traffic coming into Guerneville later Friday, it did not appear holiday visitors were too worried, Russian River Chamber of Commerce President Debra Johnson said.

“I don’t think it’s going to have a big impact,” Johnson said. “I think we’re going to have a hugely successful last hurrah.”

The escalated warning came two weeks after county health officials posted notices on public beaches along the river about possible risks related to blue-green algae that had been detected in areas of the waterway. The growth apparently has been nurtured by warm temperatures, abundant nutrients in the water and low river flows amid historic drought conditions.

At the time, the signs warned beachgoers to monitor young children and pets closely because of the potential for exposure to toxins produced in some species of blue-green algae intermixed in the filamentous algae common in the river. What they feared were microcystins, toxins that attack the liver and were more likely to occur with the kinds of blue-green algae observed.

But the situation evolved rapidly this week after a 2-year-old dog named Posie succumbed last Saturday to a lethal toxin while accompanying his owners on a canoe ride down the river. Preliminary test results disclosed late Thursday afternoon indicated the dog had died from a neurotoxin called Anotoxin-a, a far more potent and dangerous substance that causes nervous system damage, experts said.

That’s when talk of a possible river closure arose, dependent on final test results that came Friday and confirmed the presence of Anotoxin-a in the dog’s gastrointestinal tract, Holbrook said.

But after a series of discussions involving representatives from environmental health, county Regional Parks, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Sonoma County Water Agency and others, health officials decided the river would remain open to humans, but not pets.

New warnings in English and Spanish were to be posted at 26 public beaches, boat launches and parking lots by Friday evening.

Holbrook said the risk to people getting in the river appears minimal provided they exercise what are being called “healthy water habits” that include avoiding algal scums or mats, keeping children from ingesting river water and steering clear of still side pools where blue-green algae might grow.

“It’s not zero risk. I’m not saying that,” Holbrook said. “I’m saying that the risk is with the algal mats, and we want people to stay away from those areas.”

Don McEnhill, head of the nonprofit Russian Riverkeeper, said his organization, which has been involved in research and discussions about the blue-green algae, had found reports of only a single human fatality from exposure to Anatoxin-a, involving one of five teenage boys who went swimming in a Pennsylvania livestock pond two years ago. The boy apparently drank from the pond and died two days later.

That water, McEnhill said, had an extremely high concentration of the toxin that simply isn’t evident in the Russian River.

“You can’t even compare what was in that lake,” he said.

The possibility that health officials might close the river to recreation loomed large in an area dependent on summertime visitors for much of its income.

Many business owners said they’d already heard from customers with questions and concerns prompted by earlier warnings about blue-green algae in the river.

Others were irked by the difficulty in obtaining clear information about the threat.

“In this kind of situation, it’s kind of like, What are we going to say? What are we going to do?” said Guerneville real estate agent Herman Hernandez, who sits on the board of the Russian River Recreation and Parks District and chairs the Sonoma County Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission.

Sharon Kennedy, store manager at Cassini Family Ranch in Duncans Mills, said camp personnel already had stopped renting out inner tubes and stand-up paddle boards in deference to health department warnings about potentially hazardous blue-green algae.

With the holiday weekend nigh, she said the camp had organized a carnival with ?old-fashioned games and treats, in addition to a variety of other family activities it typically offers, to offset limits on river fun.

“We have some had cancellations, of course,” she said, but available campsites get “snapped right up again, because of people wanting to come.”

At Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville on Friday afternoon, Mikko and Hanna Tervahauta of San Francisco told their children, Luukas, 6, and Noomi, 4, not to drink any water as they splashed in a pair of black inner tubes close to shore.

“I feel it’s OK,” Mikko Tervahauta said as the couple sat in lawn chairs on the gravel beach. If an upgraded health warning were to be posted, Tervahauta said, “We’ll just keep everybody out of the water.”

Nearby, concern about the possibility of a harmful toxin in the water constrained the celebration of Mia Lawrence’s 15th birthday at the beach. Some of the dozen Novato teens attending the party went in knee-deep. Others ventured all the way in for a swim.

“I’m terrified. I didn’t touch the water today,” said Alexis Blake, 13.

Michelle Lawrence, Mia’s mother, said they’d been told swimming was OK as long as no one drank any water.

Alexa Smaczniak of Brisbane, who was staying at a cabin near the beach, said she was concerned about family members coming up for the weekend and letting their kids get wet. “You can’t go swimming without drinking some water,” she said.

At King’s Sport & Tackle in downtown Guerneville, manager Scott Heemstra said that if human safety were in doubt, restrictions on river access would be necessary.

Closed beaches would hurt businesses like his that depend on summertime visitors. “Without the river, there’s nothing here,” Heemstra said.

But Holbrook said the weight of how a river closure might affect business interests was not a factor in the decision health officials had to make Friday.

“We are pretty clear what our mission is, and that is to protect the public’s health,” Holbrook said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB. You can reach Guy Kovner at 521-5457 or guy.kovner@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @guykovner.