Recent budget cuts to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality have forced the department to select just 18 water bodies to monitor this recreation season for harmful algal blooms.

Those 18 were picked based on their amount of recreation use, plus history of harmful algal blooms.

In Weber County, the state will continue to monitor Pineview Reservoir, a popular recreation spot that’s seen harmful algal blooms, or HABs, each of the past two years.

Causey Reservoir in eastern Weber County was left off the state monitoring list, but the Weber-Morgan Health Department intends to monitor most of the water bodies in Weber and Morgan counties.

“The health department will continue to monitor most recreational water bodies in Weber and Morgan counties, including Causey Reservoir, in spite of funding shortfalls at DEQ,” Michela Harris, WMHD environmental health division director, said in a statement to the Standard-Examiner via a department spokesperson. “We routinely sample the water for E. coli bacteria during the high use months (May-October) and will check for harmful algal blooms during those monitoring trips as well. We’ll also continue to respond to concerns or complaints of visual blooms that are reported by the public and have the means to conduct preliminary in-house testing on algae to determine whether or not it’s harmful cyanobacteria.”

Department spokesperson Lori Buttars clarified which specific water bodies the department will and won’t monitor.

“We try to identify areas where people recreate the most, mainly beaches. We do East Canyon, Causey, Pineview and a part of the south fork of the Ogden River. We don’t monitor all areas of the Ogden River (or) the 21st Street Pond, and the state does the Weber River,” Buttars said.

The state will also continue to monitor East Canyon Reservoir in Morgan County.

Earlier this month, toxins from a harmful algal bloom killed a dog in Zion National Park, where officials have instituted a health advisory along the north fork of the Virgin River.

The lapse in state funding means the primary responsibility for monitoring water bodies for HABs falls to local health departments, which are working overtime dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Davis County Health Department will monitor all of its water bodies for HABs despite the state funding reduction.

The big lapse locally comes in Box Elder County. The Bear River Health Department told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday it doesn’t have enough resources to monitor Willard Bay State Park for HABs.

Willard Bay was left off the state HAB monitoring list.