A potentially deadly form of algae that has appeared in western Lake Erie almost every summer since 1995 was found near Toledo this week in particles large enough to be seen by the human eye.
And it's already thick in Sandusky Bay, where it started to re-emerge in April when the water was still chilly.
Microcystis is the same type of algae linked to as many as 75 deaths in Brazil in 1996, though no deaths have been recorded in North America.
Carbon-activated filtration systems used here by municipal water plants, including Toledo's, are highly effective at removing it from public water supplies.
Microcystis isn't usually visible in Lake Erie until the water heats up to peak summer temperature in mid-August, if it reappears at all. But this is the second summer it has been found early, and it appeared a month earlier this year than last.
Health officials say it hasn't reached the level of being labeled a potential public health threat. However, a precautionary water sample drawn from Nickel Plate Beach in Erie County is to be analyzed on Monday to see if that type of algae is in the water there.Dr. David Culver, an Ohio State University professor who has led U.S.-Canadian research of microcystis and testified in Congress as a research expert on the subject, said the sample was sent to Columbus by the Erie County Health District after a swimmer complained of feeling ill. The swimmer also said her dog became ill after lapping some water near the beach, which is east of Sandusky Bay.
Dr. Culver said nausea and cramping symptoms as experienced by the swimmer could be related to other causes, including the presence of E. coli or fecal matter in the water.
Erie County health officials could not be reached for comment.
Many of those who died from microcystis in Brazil were kidney dialysis patients who the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined were exposed to raw water contaminated by the algae after a breakdown of the water treatment system at their hospital.
Scientists have admittedly been thrown for a loop over why it reappeared in Lake Erie after disappearing for some 20 years - and why it's here in any detectable amount now.
Dr. Culver said the presence of microcystis goes against conventional wisdom because the region had an unusually cool spring and has just completed one of the driest Junes on record.
Conventional wisdom says that algae grows after heavy rainfalls that pull phosphorus and other nutrients into the water, as well as from a combination of sewage overflows and runoff from farms and golf courses. Several weeks of bright, sunny weather with little or no wind and sustained heat exacerbate the problem.
Neither Dr. Culver nor Dr. Tom Bridgeman, a staff scientist for the University of Toledo's Lake Erie Center, knew what to make of the algae's early return.
The Toledo-area discovery was made by Dr. Bridgeman in Maumee Bay water near Turtle Island. "It's not up to a nuisance level yet, but it's there," he said. "Following a dry June, I wouldn't have expected it in July."
Equally puzzling was the discovery in Sandusky Bay in April by one of Dr. Culver's research assistants. Dr. Culver said researchers have learned that temperature is not as much of a limiting factor as previously thought when there is an abundance of nutrients in the water.
Another grim sign: Oxygen levels near Sandusky Bay's mouth are way down, an indication that there's more algae forming in the water.
Low oxygen forces fish to move to survive.
"We're trying to make sense of all that," Dr. Culver said.
A large algal bloom across Lake Erie in August "will show something's going on in the lake that we don't understand," he said.
Contact Tom Henry at:
thenry@theblade.com
or 419-724-6079.
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