drinking water

And so, unfortunately, they begin

Today’s Lake Erie Harmful Algal Bloom Bulletin, published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), reports the presence of a Microcystis cyanobacteria bloom extending from Maumee Bay near Toledo about 13 miles north along the Michigan coast and 15 miles east along the Ohio coast. A persistent bloom in Sandusky Bay, the bulletin reports, is continuing.

You can learn more about NOAA’s harmful algal bloom forecasts here, and you can sign up to get bulletins about them (every couple of days or so from July to October) by clicking the blue “Subscribe” button. Details in the bulletins, which include the locations of blooms and three-day forecasts, can be used to plan your activities at Lake Erie.

NOAA last week predicted that western Lake Erie will experience significant harmful algal bloom levels this summer.

Study: Harmful algae in central Lake Erie too

A new study of harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie’s central basin, mentioned in an April 23 post, gets deeper coverage in a story today by Ohio State science writer Misti Crane.

Not only do blooms routinely occur in the lake’s central basin, the story says, they can also produce types of cyanobacterial toxins—toxins produced by cyanobacteria, the organisms responsible for harmful algal blooms—that typically aren’t detected through routine water-safety monitoring.

Continue reading →

Study: Keep tabs on algae in central Lake Erie

Harmful algal blooms aren’t just a thing in western Lake Erie. They happen in the lake’s central basin too, and when they do, they sometimes produce toxins.

So says a new study led by Justin Chaffin of CFAES’ Stone Laboratory, which set out to learn more about the central basin’s less-studied blooms, including what drives them and whether they produce toxins called cyanobacterial toxins. The toxins, which can threaten human health, must be removed by facilities that treat drinking water.

Continue reading →

How climate change is affecting the Great Lakes

In areas from rainfall to lake levels, fish to algal blooms, shipping to agriculture, drinking water quality to public health, “Climate change is causing significant and far-reaching impacts on the Great Lakes and the Great Lakes region.”

That’s according to the science-based Assessment of the Impacts of Climate Change on the Great Lakes, released last week by the nonprofit Environmental Law & Policy Center, based in Chicago, and the nonprofit Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

Continue reading →

New bioenergy, biological waste management program at Ohio State ATI

Starting fall semester, students at Ohio State ATI, CFAES’s two-year degree-granting unit in Wooster, will be able to study a new program focused on two key global issues: bioenergy and biological waste management.

Worth noting: National Geographic recently ranked water and wastewater treatment operator as the second-fastest-growing job in sustainability-related fields.

Check out Ohio State ATI’s website.

Let’s see what’s out there

NOAA has issued its first early season Lake Erie algal bloom bulletin. You can get weekly and, starting in July, twice-weekly updates on the Forecasting webpage of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. You also can sign up to get them by email. (Photo: Lake Erie on May 8, showing sediment plumes from the Maumee River and other tributaries, NOAA CoastWatch.)

It’s good for your farm. It’s good for everyone’s water

If you live and farm in Ohio and apply fertilizer to more than 50 acres of land, you need to earn your agricultural fertilizer certification by Sept. 30 of this year. Learn more about the requirement here. See the training dates and locations here. The next training session is May 10 in Cortland in northeast Ohio.

Algal bloom effort releases report

Image of algal bloom report 2Ohio Sea Grant, on behalf of Ohio State, the University of Toledo and the Ohio Department of Higher Education, has released the annual report for the first year of funding for the Harmful Algal Bloom Research Initiative (HABRI), which seeks solutions for harmful algal blooms in Ohio. Included are details on 18 new studies; some involve CFAES scientists. Read the press release. Read the report.

 

 

Water’s importance ‘is increasingly on the public’s mind’

Picture of child drinking glass of water 2This month’s breakfast presentation by the Environmental Professionals Network, which includes an optional joint meeting with the Water Management Association of Ohio, will feature three major initiatives aimed at protecting and improving water quality. Continue reading →