Toledo crisis brings many to area for safe water

Those served by the Toledo water supply rushed to the Tecumseh area looking for clean bottled water after two sample readings for microcystin, a potentially harmful cyanotoxin, came back higher than the recommended standard. A ban on using and boiling water was issued in the early morning hours on Saturday, Aug. 2, by the City of Toledo, sending many Toledo area residents far and wide for water. Toledo gets its water from Lake Erie.“Initially, we had a huge rush Saturday morning,” said Keith Belanger, Busch's store manager in Tecumseh. “We were completely sold out.”Belanger said he called the supplier to get more water delivered to the store Saturday. “We were able to get extra trucks the same day,” said Belanger. “We had a good turnaround.”Jerry’s Beef and Deli was sold out of water by around 11 a.m. Saturday. “We did have a rush on water sales,” said Mike Seal, grocery manager at Jerry’s Beef and Deli. “We had a sale on water, which made it worse.”Seal said the rush started around 8:30 a.m. Saturday and the store was filled with people looking for water by 10 a.m. “Most of it was out the door by 11,” Seal said.Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins lifted the ban on Monday, Aug. 4. Algae blooms often cause microcystin as they are fed by fertilizer runoff from farms and lawns, particularly phosphorous, which can also come from livestock pens and malfunctioning septic systems. These blooms can cause health effects for people like liver and nervous system damage along with abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The blooms can also cause environmental damage. Decaying blooms consume a lot of oxygen, which kill off other plants and animals that live in the lake. Algae blooms and cyanotoxins are not something customers of Tecumseh water have to worry about. Tecumseh water comes from seven wells, ranging from 80 to 260 feet below the surface. The wells draw from the Adrian Drainage System, a glacial outwash deposit. According to Rick Boyers, the chemist at Tecumseh Department of Public Utilities, the aquifer that feeds Tecumseh its water are ground wells. This year’s “Annual Water Quality Report,” which was released by Tecumseh Department of Public Utilities on June 6, reported that the “drinking water for the City of Tecumseh is safe and meets federal and state requirements.”