It won't surprise regular readers that we've talked more about water matters than anything else over the last four years -- from broad concerns like Third-World sanitation and the Great Lakes Water Compact to more specific matters like Lake Erie water levels and harmful algal blooms.

For good reason: We're sitting on the southern shore of the largest supply of freshwater on the planet, nearly 20 percent of what's available in the continental United States, but still vulnerable to abuse, overuse and unwanted changes.

With that in mind, here's a new smattering of water matters:

Lake dead zones not deadly to all

Researchers at Purdue University are suggesting in a new report that dead zones -- large low-oxygen areas in places like Lake Erie and the Gulf of Mexico -- may not equally affect fish and other aquatic life.

Among the four species studied, it was yellow perch -- a prized sport fish -- that was least affected by the dead zone, while others (rainbow smelt, round goby and emerald shiners) fared worse.

That could prove important in sustaining the perch population if the Lake Erie dead zone increases. The area is already often the "size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined" each year, said primary researcher Tomas H k, an assistant professor of forestry and natural resources.

The researchers used output from a model to estimate how much dissolved oxygen was present in Lake Erie's low-oxygen each day from 1987 to 2005.

Northeast Ohio water quality affected by stormwater

A group of area agencies known as NEO PIPE (the Northeast Ohio Public Involvement, Public Education group) will use a $21,900 state grant to launch a public awareness campaign: "From the Upper Reaches to Lake Erie's Beaches: A Banner Year for Nonpoint Source Pollution Solutions."

OK, maybe the pun is little lame, seeing that the group will be putting up actual banners in Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake, Medina, Portage, and Summit counties.

And the phrase "Nonpoint Source Pollution" isn't the most user-friendly. Basically, it means water contamination that is not from a single location (such as a factory), but from various smaller starting places to which we all contribute.

Still, the messages on the banners are aimed at "empowering residents to practice healthy household and backyard habits that improve water quality and reduce storm water pollution."

And brochures accompanying the banners will talk in more detail about watersheds, water runoff, rain gardens and rain barrels and how to "Steer Clear of Pollutants."

Magnificat students aid African village

Two students at Magnificat High School in Rocky River -- senior Maddie Pearse and junior Grace Corrigan -- are raising money to help provide clean water to a school in Lira, Uganda, as part of the international movement, H2O For Life.

The students said they'd like to bring in $1,000 by asking other students to drink water on Wednesdays and donate the cash they would ordinarily spend on soft drinks, coffee or fruit juice.

The two said after attending a National Catholic Youth Conference in 2009, that as "rising upperclasswomen, we felt responsible to act in some way to stop the global water crisis" and came up with the plan. Go to h2oforlifeschools.org/ for more information about the international effort.