(Toledo, OH) An unusually wet spring and summer, followed by blazing heat in September, are being blamed for one of Lake Erie's worst algal blooms in history.
Federal observers say this year's bloom rated as high as a nine on a ten-point scale, covering one-thousand square miles of Lake Erie and seeping into the Maumee River. That makes the algae bloom the third-worst in the past 15 years, according to NOAA observers.
The size and duration of the algal bloom ranks third to those in 2011 and 2015. Toledo's drinking water remained safe throughout the algae season.