Water-quality dashboard remains at 'watch'
8/28/2015The city of Toledo reported Friday that the concentration of algal toxins in raw Lake Erie water near its intake crib in Maumee Bay was 1.0 parts per billion, a level that water-treatment plant operators can easily neutralize.
The city’s water-quality dashboard remains in a “watch” status, even though the concentration of microcystin in finished tap water distributed to the public was undetectable.
No tests of the city’s treated drinking water this year have registered a detectable amount of the toxin.
The water remains safe to drink, city officials said.
City officials detected microcystin in the raw lake water for the first time this year on July 27, when it measured 0.5 ppb. Since then, levels in the raw lake water near Toledo’s intake crib have fluctuated, rising as high as 4.9 ppb on Aug. 12.
Toledo’s treated tap water registered microcystin toxin levels greater than 3 ppb in the early morning hours of Aug. 2, 2014, which prompted officials to issue a do-not-drink order that remained in effect until midmorning Aug. 4.
The highest recorded tap sample was 3.191 ppb on Aug. 2, 2014.