TOLEDO, Ohio – A group of Ohio lawmakers is planning to meet just outside Toledo next week to talk about the algae problems on Lake Erie.
Meantime, the Speaker of the Ohio House has asked the chair of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee to start looking into the algae bloom blamed for spawning bacteria that contaminated the water supply for approximately a half million people in and around Toledo last weekend.
The legislators say the state of emergency brought on by the emergency shut-off of the water supply for Ohio’s fourth largest city shows there should be greater urgency in fighting the algae.
Both Republicans and Democrats who make up the Lake Erie Legislative Caucus are planning to attend a meeting about the algae on Aug. 15 at Maumee Bay State Park. That’s just outside Toledo.
State Sen. Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green) and Rep. Chris Redfern (D-Catawba Island) are co-chairs of the Lake Erie caucus.
House Speaker William Batchelder (R-Medina) on Thursday asked Agriculture and Natural Resources chairman Dave Hall to put his committee to work studying the issue.
“His guidance on recent water quality legislation, natural resources policy, and his continued work on the Mid-Biennium Review agriculture and environment component, allows him to be ideal for leading the research and discussion that is necessary to resolve this complicated issue,” Batchelder said of Hall.
Toxins in the Toledo water supply apparently caused by the harmful blue-green algae at the mouth of the Maumee River forced city officials to enact a ban on using tap water for at least 400,000 people in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan that lasted nearly three days.