Big-Ag-Fueled Algae Bloom Won't Leave Toledo's Water Supply Alone

As August warms waters seasonally in many parts of the U.S., harmful algal blooms are causing health hazards. A prime example is Toledo, where high levels of an algal toxin made city drinking water unusable last year. Algal blooms in the warm, shallow Lake Erie are worsened by agricultural runoff. With climate warming, new algal blooms are showing up in new places, like the Pacific Ocean.

"The citizens of Toledo, Ohio, have embarked upon their new summer ritual: stocking up on bottled water. For the second straight year, an enormous algae bloom has settled upon Lake Erie, generating nasty toxins right where the city of 400,000 draws its tap water.

It's a kind of throwback to Toledo's postwar heyday, when the Rust Belt's booming factories deposited phosphorus-laced wastewater into streams that made their way into Lake Erie, feeding algae growths that rival today's in size. But after the decline of heavy industry and the advent of the Clean Water Act, there's a new main source of algae-feeding phosphorus into the beleaguered lake: fertilizer runoff from industrial-scale corn and soybean farms. (Background here.)

As I reported last August, the trouble is that freshwater blooms produce a toxin called microcystin, which can trigger nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, severe headaches, fever, and even liver damage. For three days last year, microcystin in Toledo's water exceeded federal limits, and the city had to urge residents not only to avoid drinking it, but also to use bottled water to wash dishes and bathe infants. "

Tom Philpott reports for Mother Jones August 5, 2015.

SEE ALSO:

"Toxic Algae Blooms in a Warmer Pacific, Endangering Marine Life And Forcing Seafood Bans" (AP)

"Reporting Issues Rise With Algal Toxins" (Toledo Blade)