Tt post sep 27, 2017 - algae bloom on maumee river

"It blew in from the lake."

Really? My wife informed me of the green wave early last week, since she works in the glass building with the missing tooth. I cannot remember building names.

Anyway, I too wondered if it moved in from Lake Erie, since the winds were from the east quadrant early last week, but downtown is quite a ways from the bay, and the winds were light. It didn't seem possible that it got blown in from Lake Erie.

My rain gauge measured 1.40 inches of rainfall on Tue, Sep 19, 2017. Maybe the combo of timing, heavy rainfall, runoff, six consecutive days with temps in the 90s, and mostly light winds helped the bloom to form on the Maumee River.

The river current is slow in that area. At times, the Maumee River downtown seems more like a reservoir or a lake than a river.

The photo that I saw early last week showed only a small amount of the algae bloom compared to what existed early this week. I think that's downtown growth and not a migration from Lake Erie.

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"It grows on the bottom of the lake and then releases to the surface where it floats."

I'm unsure if you are talking about the algae or microcystin or both.

Microcystin exists in the Maumee River. Bowling Green sources its drinking water from the Maumee River, and BG has to test and account for microcystin levels in the summer and fall.

Jul 28, 2015 WTOL story

... the microcystin level in Bowling Green's raw water supply was reported as three times that of the Toledo water intake. That is 0.4 parts per billion for Toledo and 1.3 parts per billion for BG.

According to Utilities Director Brian O'Connell, this is not an immediate red flag. He says the level in Bowling Green at this time, and even higher numbers they've had in the past, should not cause concern.

"Regardless of what level the algae has been detected at, we've always had a "non-detect" for the microcystin toxin in our finished water that goes to the customers," said O'Connell.

Last year Bowling Green was not part of the crisis, as they get their water from an intake in the Maumee River.

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_"due to some #fakenews rumors going around, everyone is scrambling to the grocery store to buy bottled water"_

Interesting. Pollution has fouled our rivers and lake, and one solution is to buy copious amounts of plastic bottled water that arguably is bad for the environment.

Well done, humans.

Here is one advantage of buying too many branded growlers at too many breweries: we have numerous glass containers that can be filled with filtered tap water when the water is fine.

The bottled water junkies could try visiting the City of Toledo website to view the water quality dashboard.

Or the social media mob could try following the City of Toledo Facebook and Twitter feeds, assuming that being factually informed matters.

Current dashboard shows things in the "clear."

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