Toledo's Algae 'Whodunit' Continues: Port Authority Unlikely Culprit

A Port Authority facility was vindicated this month after questions about its role in Toledo's algae crisis.

Expert opinions in defense of the facility were issued in response to "persistent claims that the deposit of bio-sludge from the city of Toledo on the island is leaching phosphorus that is fueling the algae blooms that shut down Toledo’s drinking water supply this year," the Toledo Blade reported. 

Toledo implemented, and then lifted, a ban on water use in early August. Around 400,000 residents were unable to use their water for over two days due to toxic algae contamination, CNN reported.

The Port Authority location in question is known as Facility 3. Why was it implicated in the algae crisis?

"For the last several years, S&L Fertilizer has used Facility 3, a 540-acre island at the mouth of the Maumee River, to make a topsoil product called Nu-Soil out of dredgings, sludge, and used lime," the report said.

But now experts say Facility 3 is unlikely responsible for the algae crisis. Julie Hewlett, an engineering consultant who works with S&L, explained why the facility is not a contamination threat. 

“Our interpretation is there is nothing going from the surface through these underlying sand seams and out into the lake,” she said, per the Blade report. “The only input of water is precipitation. The only exit is through evaporation.”

Hewlett said she did not think Facility 3 contributed to the algae crisis, according to the report. 

Joseph DePinto, a water quality engineer who has worked on projects for the Army Corps of Engineers, gave his opinion, as well.

“The contribution from [Facility 3], compared to the total loading of phosphorus in the Maumee River can’t be large. It just can’t be,” he said, per the report.

A featured editorial in the Toledo Blade recently called for timely and meaningful action by the state legislature to improve water quality.

"The preservation of a clean Lake Erie — and the economic advantages and public-health standards that depend on it — is too crucial to be subject to the standard legislative nonsense during the lame-duck session," the piece said.