Potential Algae Bloom Could Be A Record-Breaker

Accord­ing to the National Oceanic and Atmos­pheric Admin­is­tra­tion, an algae bloom this year at Lake Erie could be much worse than oth­ers recently. Worse than last year’s, which shut down Toledo’s pub­lic water sys­tem for two days. Last year, it was so bad that peo­ple who depend on that water source couldn’t drink it, bathe with it, or use it even if it was boiled. Accord­ing to the experts, this year they expect the bloom to develop from west to east in the Lake Erie West­ern Basin, and they say it is likely to start to show up some­time this month. The algae bloom back in 2011 was the largest on record… a 10 on the scale of sever­ity. This summer’s bloom could top out, accord­ing to fore­cast­ers, as high as 9.5. As bad as it was last sum­mer, it was only rated at 6.5, so use that as a com­par­i­son if you will.