Algal blooms in Ohio’s Buckeye Lake and Grand Lake St. Marys cost homeowners $152 million in lost property value from 2009 to 2015, said a new study by CFAES researchers, as reported in a press release by Ohio State’s University Communications office.
A related study, also reported in the same press release, said fishing license sales along Lake Erie drop at least 10 percent every time an algal bloom there reaches a moderate level of health risk, equal to up to $5.6 million in lost fishing revenue and related spending in the case of a severe, summer-long bloom. (Photo: Lake Erie algal bloom, Frank Lichtkoppler, Ohio Sea Grant, via Flickr.)