The relationship between musty-odor-causing organisms and water quality in Lake Biwa

Musty odor has occurred annually in Lake Biwa since 1969. Osaka municipal waterworks, which is located downstream of Lake Biwa, has made many efforts to treat musty-odor compounds produced in Lake Biwa from spring through autumn. With the development of analytical methods for the determination of musty-odor compounds, we have been able to confirm that planktonic blue-green algae are the major causes of the musty-odor occurrences. The relationship between the growth of blue-green algae and the water quality was not so apparent. However, through our data analysis focusing on the relationship between musty-odor occurrences due to Phormidium tenue or Oscillatoria tenuis and some nutrients in Lake Biwa, we found that the concentration of nitrate in water may be an important parameter for the estimation of growth of the algae and the musty-odor behavior.