Columbus has spent $723,000 to get rid of the rotten taste and smell in drinking water caused by toxic algae at Hoover Reservoir. The city has received more than 1,700 complaints about the smell and taste of its drinking water. This was Columbus' first encounter with blue-green algae.

Columbus has spent $723,000 to get rid of the rotten taste and smell in drinking water caused by toxic algae at Hoover Reservoir.

Toledo spent $3 million last summer to keep Lake Erie�s toxic algae out of the city�s drinking water. Dozens of water-treatment plants along Erie are in the same boat.

And in western Ohio, the city of Celina spends about $450,000 a year on problems at Grand Lake St. Marys, which has become the poster child for the state�s algae problems.

Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, grow thick in Lake Erie, Grand Lake and other inland lakes each summer, feeding on phosphorus from manure that rain washes off farm fields. The algae can produce liver and nerve toxins that threaten people, pets and wildlife.

Columbus is just the most-recent city to have to battle the issue with dollars.

Matt Steele, Columbus� water supply and treatment coordinator, said the Hoover Reservoir algae bloom is a mystery. Toxic algae typically appear in late summer.

�I would hope that we wouldn�t have it again next year,� Steele said.

The city has received more than 1,700 complaints about the smell and taste of its drinking water. This was Columbus� first encounter with blue-green algae, which has plagued Buckeye Lake for several years.

In 2012, algae toxins were detected in the raw water at 13 treatment plants, including those in Toledo, Celina, Lake County, Findlay, Lima and Clermont County. None of the toxins contaminated treated drinking water.

State efforts to combat the algae have focused on reducing the flow of phosphorus to streams from farms, which are considered the prime contributors to Lake Erie and Grand Lake St.

Marys. Farmers near Grand Lake St. Marys are required to monitor and limit the amount of manure they spread on fields. Phosphorus-reduction efforts are voluntary elsewhere.

In September, Lake Erie algae toxins overloaded the Carroll Water and Sewer District treatment plant in Ottawa County.The plant was the first in Ohio to post an algae-related �do not drink or cook� warning. The ban, which affected 2,000 customers, lasted two days.

Carroll Township paid $125,000 for a treatment system. Henry Biggert, water-district superintendent, said the new system will destroy all toxins and other compounds that create odor and taste problems.

Celina�s system was installed in 1995 to eliminate toxic algae. Water superintendent Mike Sudman said that before the system was in place, drinking water tasted like �licking a carp straight out of the tap.�

Columbus officials expect any future odor and toxin issues to be eliminated when a similar, but much bigger, $70 million treatment system is installed in 2016.

In Columbus, the water in Hoover Reservoir was treated with powdered carbon. Steele said city and state tests showed no detectable amounts of toxins.

Toledo uses the same method, said Andrew McClure, that city�s water-treatment plant administrator.

Carbon can�t eliminate odor and taste-changing compounds.

Meantime, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has a guidance standard for toxins of 1 part per billion in drinking water.

On Nov. 13, officials measured more than 100 parts per billion in Grand Lake St. Marys. On Nov. 20, there was 0.15 part per billion in Celina�s treated water.

shunt@dispatch.com

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