(Toledo, OH) Toledo’s mayor is joining Lucas County officials in the push to have Lake Erie designated as an impaired waterway.
Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson sent letters Tuesday to Governor John Kasich and President Trump, asking for their help with the lake's toxic algal blooms. An impaired designation would direct more state and federal resources to the region to stop the sources of the algae.
Mayor Hicks-Hudson announced she's changed her mind Tuesday along the shores of the Maumee River, now coated with the green slime of a toxic algae bloom.
Lucas County commissioners, environmental groups, and her opponent in the mayor's race have been pressing Hicks-Hudson to ask for the lake to be declared impaired, which would bring significant federal resources, requirements, and testing to bear. But Toledo's mayor has resisted until now, despite the city's toxic water crisis three years ago.
The mayor now may even seek to sue those responsible for polluting the lake, including whoever was responsible for a recent fish-kill in Williams County, when manure spread on farm-fields leaked into a local creek.