The agencies that sampled water at El Dorado Beach and Nevada Beach last week have detected no toxins associated with harmful algal blooms in the lake. These are sites viral social media posts purported could be where a dog ingested harmful cyanobacteria and later died.
“The agencies involved in water-sample testing cannot draw conclusions about the cause of death for the dog from these results;” the California State Water Resources Control Board and Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ announcement reads, “they can only speak to evaluating water quality and the presence of HABs.”
Last week, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board told the tribune that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife attempted to reach the dog owner to get information on veterinarian who treated the dog.
While agencies found no sign of HABs in the lake itself, the NDEP did find very low levels of a cyanotoxin, called saxitoxin, from a sample of a shallow pond adjacent to Nevada Beach. This pond is not connected to Lake Tahoe.