10 Years After Water Crisis, UToledo Researchers Remain Committed to Protecting Region’s Drinking Water

10 Years After Water Crisis, UToledo Researchers Remain Committed to Protecting Region's Drinking Water

The Power To Do Public Impact Research: Since a harmful algal bloom forced the city of Toledo to issue a "Do Not Drink" water advisory in 2014, UToledo has been working to protect water quality and the health of Lake Erie for the half-million people in the region who depend on it for drinking water. This is the first in a five-part series detailing UToledo's water quality research efforts over the past decade.

The advisory went out on Aug. 2, 2014: Do not drink.

It was an unprecedented shock to the half-million locals whose taps are supplied by the Toledo Water Treatment Plant, many of whom had little reason before the crisis to consider the implications of the harmful algal bloom that has emerged each summer since the 1990s in the western basin of Lake Erie.

For three days water treatment experts scrambled to clear the drinking water of the toxins released by the expanse of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, that had settled around the raw water intake just outside Maumee Bay. Meanwhile residents cleared store shelves of bottled water and queued at volunteer-run distribution sites.

"The University of Toledo was receiving a lot of phone calls, especially at Health Science Campus," Dr. Frank Calzonetti, vice president for innovation and economic development at UToledo, recalled of the crisis. He led the University's research efforts at the time. "People wanted to know what was happening and how exposure to microcystin in the water would affect them and their pets. They looked to us for leadership during the crisis."

UToledo stepped into that leadership role immediately, organizing a community forum on Aug. 5, 2014, and bringing together a team of scientists, engineers, doctors and public health experts who would apply their diverse areas of expertise to the region's most pressing issue.

Ten years since the all-clear that returned confidence to taps in Toledo, UToledo's Water Task Force maintains this commitment to water quality research, remaining at the forefront of efforts to more effectively monitor water quality and accurately predict blooms, efficiently remove toxins from water, thoroughly understand health effects of exposure and prevent harmful algal blooms from forming altogether through policy and land management.

Their work is supported by millions of dollars in externally sponsored awards to support water quality research, including from agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

UToledo also remains heavily invested in the Ohio Department of Higher Education's Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative (HABRI), leading five projects collectively funded at $1.2 million in the most recent round of agency-directed research. UToledo and the Ohio State University co-direct this initiative that was founded in response to the water crisis and is managed by Ohio Sea Grant.

"The Ohio Department of Higher Education's HABRI, intended to help state agencies prevent and manage future algal issues, has been an amazing statewide effort," said Dr. Christopher Winslow, director of Ohio Sea Grant. "This effort has educated water treatment plant operators, informed how blooms form and behave, helped address the nutrient loading driving blooms and assessed human health ramifications of the toxins, as well as built new and impactful relationships among Ohio's numerous academic institutions, watershed residents and federal and state agencies. The research and education underway, thanks to HABRI, has elevated Ohio's role in algal bloom science globally."

The water crisis catalyzed a close working relationship between UToledo and Toledo Water Treatment Plant, and later between UToledo and regional utilities in Bowling Green, Celina, Defiance and Oregon. Researchers routinely consult on the most effective, economical and environmental ways to remove toxins known as microcystin from water, drawing on onsite data they collect and analyze.

UToledo also monitors and predicts algal blooms, drawing on data collected in nearly weekly trips into Maumee Bay and western Lake Erie and a network of high-tech instruments. The latter includes a real-time algae sensor that UToledo installed at the city of Toledo's lake intake pump station in eastern Lucas County in 2022, as part of a wider-reaching initiative aimed at the early detection and management of harmful algal blooms sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that's valued at $1.4 million.

The pump station was the first facility in the country to test the innovative instrument, whose success researchers documented in the peer-reviewed journal Science of the Total Environment.

"Ten years after the water crisis, I am confident that our drinking water in Toledo is safe from algal toxins," said Dr. Thomas Bridgeman, who has been integral to advancing research on harmful algal blooms as a professor of ecology and director of the UToledo Lake Erie Center. "We have much more sophisticated technology on the lake and in the treatment plant than we had in 2014, allowing public utilities to proactively treat water before microcystin makes it anywhere near a faucet. Although our tap water is safe, at times blooms still prevent people from enjoying Lake Erie fishing and recreation. It's time for us to step up efforts to prevent blooms altogether."

While UToledo researchers continue to refine our understanding of the dynamics of harmful algal blooms, excessive nutrients from agricultural fertilizers that enter the lake as runoff have long been understood to be a key catalyst. In line with the state's comprehensive water quality initiative H2Ohio, UToledo researchers are investigating the most effective uses of wetlands, which prevent the flow of excess nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium into waterways.

Policy pertaining to the protection of the lake is a consideration within the College of Law, where the Legal Institute of the Great Lakes supports research, maintains publications and sponsors conferences on legal, economic and social issues of importance to the Great Lakes.

When phones were ringing at UToledo's Health Science Campus in 2014, a key area of concern was health effects. This is another area in which UToledo has significantly advanced our understanding, particularly in regard to negative effects on the function of the liver, kidney and gut.

Researchers continue to study the effects of aerosolized toxins under the Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health, previously housed at Bowling Green State University and now co-directed by UToledo and the University of Michigan. It's funded with $6.5 million from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities recognized the work by UToledo's Water Task Force to improve lives and serve the community in 2022, selecting UToledo out of its 250 public research and land-grant universities as the recipient of its Public Impact Research Award.

"As we approach the ten-year anniversary of the water crisis in Northwest Ohio, it remains difficult to overstate the importance of a healthy and vibrant Lake Erie," said Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (OH-09). "The University of Toledo has demonstrated its commitment to this shared goal through its water quality research, which directly benefits our region in advancing how we manage and ultimately mitigate harmful algal blooms."