Though the amount of microcystin present in raw Lake Erie water near Toledo’s water-system intake Wednesday was double the amount detected two days earlier, city officials announced they planned to scale back testing for the toxin.
Tests showed the raw water Wednesday afternoon contained 1.0 parts per billion of microcystin. Tests showed 0.5 ppb Monday and 0.4 ppb Tuesday.
Despite the rising levels, city officials have said they plan to discontinue daily testing for the toxin that contaminated the city’s drinking water for nearly three days last summer. Instead, the city will draw samples daily but test the water only once a week, city spokesman Stacy Weber said.
Even at 1.0 parts per billion, though, the concentration of toxic microcystin in raw lake water is so small that water-treatment plant operators shouldn’t have a problem neutralizing it, according to Doug Wagner, superintendent of the city of Oregon’s water-treatment plant.
“I wouldn’t even break a sweat at 1.0 ppb,” Mr. Wagner said. “A lot of people are panicking over nothing. We can treat at 5.0 ppb with our eyes closed.”
DASHBOARD: Current status of Toledo’s water quality
The U.S. EPA in May said it is OK for the greatest segment of America’s population — those school-age and older — to drink tap water with up to 1.6 parts per billion of microcystin in it. The new limit for infants and children younger than 6 years old, pregnant women, nursing mothers, people with liver conditions, and those on dialysis, is 0.3 part per billion.
The new goal for water-treatment plant operators, according to the first-ever health advisory for microcystin the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published in May, is 0.3 ppb or less in the finished product that gets piped to homes and businesses, although there’s more flexibility — up to 1.6 ppb — for people school age and older.
Both are based on 10-day averages and are updates to a 1998 World Health Organization advisory, which recommended tap water across the world contain no more than 1.0 ppb of the toxin.
Toledo Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson has likened 0.5 ppb to a blade of grass on a football field.
Ms. Weber said daily testing is not needed.
“We’ve always been at weekly testing,” she said. “When lake levels change, we will go to three times a week testing. That’s indicated at 2 parts per billion in the lake. We’re not even required to test by the Ohio EPA right now.”
So the question comes down to how much water plants can be reasonably stressed. It’s where the worlds of microbiology and toxicology intersect.
To put the situation into better context, consider this: Oregon produced safe tap water one day in 2013, when the raw lake water near its intake hit 100 ppb.
“We’ve regularly done over 50 ppb,” Mr. Wagner said, adding he “doesn’t start to get nervous” until the raw lake concentration is 10 to 15 ppb.
When area plant operators had a conference call with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials in 2013, Mr. Wagner suggested 10 ppb as the point in which testing should be done three times a week instead of once a week. He was overruled in favor of a more conservative approach.
The Ohio EPA, in its advisory published then and updated a few weeks ago, said it expects tests to be done at least once a week when the concentration in the raw water is 5.0 ppb or less. Above 5.0 ppb, the tests need to be done at least three times a week.
The tests cost hundreds of dollars. Just as importantly, they’re labor-intensive and take about five hours — distracting some chemists from day-to-day plant operations, Mr. Wagner said.
He said municipalities are “just throwing money out the window” when they test raw lake water that is 5.0 ppb or less, because that concentration can be easily managed by water treatment.
Toledo’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant, he said, would not have a problem removing toxins at those levels.
Ms. Weber said the tests cost the city $500 each, but city chief of staff Robert Reinbolt said cost is not a factor in the decision to test weekly.
Toledo Councilman Lindsay Webb, who is the chairman of the council’s public utilities committee, said it was “terrible” that the city would cease daily testing.
“It walks us back off of transparency,” Ms. Webb said. “We should be providing daily updates ... People want to know how significant the microcystin count is.
“We have seen a spike,” she said. “Is that a trend or an anomaly? We won’t know the answer to that unless we are testing on a daily basis.”
And Toledoans, apparently still shell-shocked by what happened last August, are stocking up for what appears to be a major bloom under way, furiously increasing local bottled-water sales since Ms. Hicks-Hudson announced during an impromptu news conference Monday night that the season’s first concentration of microcystin was found near the Toledo water intake.
Concentrations were 0.31 ppb near the Oregon intake and 0.8 ppb near the Port Clinton intake on Wednesday.
Ms. Weber said the city would increase the frequency of testing to three times a week if the toxin concentration in the raw water hits or exceeds 2 ppb. Forecasts call for the algae problem on the lake to get worse this year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the 2015 algal bloom will become second only to the 2011 bloom because of heavy rain in May and June, although the size of a bloom doesn’t necessarily correlate to how toxic it is.
Kelly Frey, who runs the Ottawa County water-treatment plant in Port Clinton, said he sees both sides of the issue.
Although weekly testing at concentrations of 5.0 ppb or less can be justified from a technology standpoint, he and other Ottawa County officials wonder if it’s better to have daily tests done anyway to put people at ease — especially considering the hyper-sensitivity that lingers in the aftermath of last summer’s water crisis.
“With all of the heightened awareness and increased concerns, why not test more often?” Mr. Frey asked. “Realizing now the response this issue has received from the public and the press, we may have to revisit that to make sure we’re giving as much of a comfort level as we can. A lot of this is unfolding as we speak.”
He also said Port Clinton has produced safe tap water from raw lake water having a concentration of 50 ppb.
Also Wednesday, officials at the Northwestern Water and Sewer District in Bowling Green reviewed their plans for a potential water crisis repeat this year.
Last year, even though Toledo’s water supply was compromised, Oregon’s and Bowling Green’s remained safe because they are not part of Toledo’s water system. Thus, those communities were able to divert resources to Toledo to help the city through its crisis. Officials anticipated greater strain if a second water crisis occurs this year and extends into the school year or lasts a long time.
Heidi Griesmer, Ohio EPA spokesman, said the state agency, which a year ago was at odds with Toledo officials over their lack of progress in upgrading the city’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant, is “well aware of the city’s water quality efforts as they are following state protocols and strategies.”
“Toledo is closely monitoring source water conditions through data sources at their buoy, raw water crib and pump station. The city is currently collecting samples every day and analyzing them weekly — giving them a good perspective of changing conditions,” she said.
A large contingent of elected and public officials gathered on the Lake Erie shoreline in eastern Lucas County’s Jerusalem Township Wednesday morning to discuss how last year’s Toledo water crisis affected them.
Several of them boarded one of two boats about noon from Meinke Marina West off Corduroy Road for what turned out to be about an hour-long trip to the Toledo water-intake crib and back, an event sponsored by a coalition of environmental groups that included the National Wildlife Federation and the Ohio Environmental Council.
Staff writer Andrew Koenig contributed to this report.
Contact Tom Henry at: thenry@theblade.com, 419-724-6079, or via Twitter @ecowriterohio.
First Published July 30, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
