Summer forecast for Lake Erie: Another big algae outbreak

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Lake Erie will see one of the most severe toxic algae outbreaks in recent years this summer, a year after toxins contaminated the drinking water for 400,000 people in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan, researchers predicted Thursday.

Scientists who issued their forecast for the lake think this year’s algae bloom could be second only to one in 2011, when the algae stretched more than 100 miles from Toledo to Cleveland.

Heavy rains across northern Ohio over the past month have washed huge amounts of algae-feeding phosphorus into the lake.

The prediction for an algae bloom bigger than a year ago doesn’t necessarily mean there will be more drinking-water trouble because wind and water temperatures play a role, too.

“While we are forecasting a severe bloom, much of the lake will be fine most of the time,” said Richard Stumpf, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Algae blooms — linked to phosphorus from farm fertilizers, livestock manure and sewage treatment plants — have taken hold in the western third of the lake over the last decade and colored some of its waters a shade of green that looks like pea soup.

Over the past two summers, toxins in the lake fouled the water supply in Toledo and in a neighboring township. Toledo’s drinking water was off-limits for just over two days last August.

The algae blooms, which typically peak from the middle of August through the end of September, also have been blamed for contributing to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can’t survive.