Ten years ago, Toledo residents woke up to urgent warnings not to drink or use their water.
A toxic algal bloom in Lake Erie had contaminated the city’s water supply. Hundreds of thousands of residents weren’t able to use the water from their faucets for nearly three days, including Alicia Smith.
“People could not access, drink, bathe their children or provide medical assistance when they needed to take their medication,” Smith recalled.
Smith is a community organizer in Junction, a low-income, majority Black neighborhood. And she spent those three days in 2014 knocking on doors and giving out bottles of water. The crisis disrupted tourism, closed businesses, cost the city an estimated 65 million dollars and fractured residents’ relationship with their water.
“After something like that happens, you are no longer as trusting and as open-minded to the public health and safety as you once were,” said Toledo resident Tiesha Amison.
The impact wasn’t just felt in Toledo: the incident garnered national attention and served as a wake-up call to the effect of algal blooms on water in Ohio. In the decade since, community, city and state organizations have been working to curb harmful algal blooms.
The problem
A variety of different factors cause harmful algal blooms to form. They need lots of light and warm temperatures. But, Laura Johnson, director of the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University, says, nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen drive the blooms’ growth each year.
Some of the nutrients come from metro wastewater, but she said only around 10% of the pollution comes from those so-called point sources. The biggest driver by far is manure and fertilizer washing into the watershed.
“Frankly, it's impossible, given the area of land that is encompassed by those different land uses, for it to not be agriculture,” Johnson said.
Around 79% of the land in the Maumee River watershed is used for agriculture.
The state’s solution
In 2019, the state started a program to address agricultural runoff. Governor Mike DeWine launched H2Ohio, a voluntary program which, among other things, financially incentivizes farmers to reduce phosphorus runoff from fertilizer.
Director of the Ohio Department of Agriculture Brian Baldridge says it’s worked: farmers are using less phosphorus on their fields. More than 3,000 producers are implementing the best fertilizing practices on nearly 2 million acres of land.
“Putting the right amount at the right time and … no more to have that great harvest,” Baldridge said. “Then, we remove that off the field so it’s not laying there and has a chance to be in our waterway.”
The program has also created more wetlands to capture nutrients before they can get into the Maumee River. Joy Mullinex, executive director of the Ohio Lake Erie Commission, said the state has also become a leader in research on harmful algal blooms.
“People have recognized the importance of needing these tools to safeguard all of our water: Lake Erie, the Ohio River,” Mullinex said. “We need to make sure that we have a safe, secure supply of drinking water across the state.”
Awaiting results
Some, however, don’t believe the program goes far enough. The ODA says it regulates the manure output of large factory farms but people like Kari Gerwin, director of water quality planning for the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments, said it hasn’t been enough to make a difference.
“We still have an algal bloom right now, and we'll probably be growing throughout the rest of the season,” Gerwin said. “The sources have not decreased and the issue has not gone away.”
City and county leaders have taken the issue to court. Toledo, Lucas County and the Environmental Law and Policy Center have sued the Environmental Protection Agency for not compelling the state to address confined animal feeding operations’ impact on the lake.
Organizations like the Ohio Environmental Council applaud the progress that H2Ohio has made, but want to see an even greater investment in expanding the program.
“In order to match the scale of the problem and restore Lake Erie, we really need bolder investments in Ohio and stronger wetlands protections and more aggressive non-point pollution reduction strategies,” said Emily Kelly, agriculture and water coordinator.
The state has invested more than $270 million so far. State officials say improvement just takes time.
“We are certainly doing our best and trying hard to resolve this as quick as possible, but the problem evolved over many years,” Mullinex said
The aftermath
In the meantime, Toledo has invested half a billion dollars to ensure the city never loses access to its water again. They’ve added technology to improve their filtration, treatment and early detection of the toxins.
But all that has come at a cost to residents. A family of five is paying close to an additional $100 on water bills each year, according to an analysis from the Alliance for the Great Lakes.
That frustrates community organizer Smith, who feels those causing the blooms should be the ones to pay the price. And even with the new tech, psychological scars remain. Many people in the area are still afraid to drink from the tap. They worry it could happen again.
“Every year we hold our breath to make sure that we can drink our water again,” Smith said.
She’s worked for a decade to advocate for safe water for her community – and won’t stop until she’s sure it’s protected.
