Water in Texas reservoir turns red

SAN ANGELO, Texas, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- Texas not only is a so-called Red State politically, this summer one of its artificial lakes has turned blood red.

The OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in the western regions of Texas has turned a deep shade of red as its levels have fallen during the state's enduring drought, LiveScience.com reported Tuesday.

The body of water is stagnant and full of dead fish.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials blame the water color on the proliferation of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water.

Not everyone is accepting that explanation, LiveScience said. Indiana preacher Paul Begley posted a video on YouTube in which he says the red lake could be a sign of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation.

"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died," the passage Begley cited reads. "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."