TOLEDO, Ohio — Researchers say toxin producing algae have formed in northern Ohio’s Sandusky Bay and are migrating into Lake Erie near Cedar Point, a signal the lake’s western basin could see massive blooms this summer.
The Blade reports an official from Bowling Green State University’s Great Lakes center says tests show toxin levels thus far are relatively low and don’t threaten water treatment systems in lakeside communities. Toxins from an algae bloom in 2014 caused massive problems for Toledo’s lake-fed system.
Rick Stumpf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says heavy spring rains have helped push algae from the bay into the lake.
Stumpf says that while spring rain has prevented farmers from planting and fertilizing, researchers can study the residual threat of “legacy” phosphorous runoff on the lake’s health.
