Residents of Toledo, Ohio went without tap water, and made national news, for a weekend in early August when high levels of mycrocystin in finished water samples prompted do-not-drink notices for nearly half a million residents. Brought about by the confluence of warm water temperatures and excessive nutrient loading, the incident shined a bright spotlight on harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the potential for resulting algal toxins to reach drinking water supplies. Though the potential for algal toxins to threaten drinking water is well known and generally dealt with proactively by utilities, the scale of the Toledo incident has caused alarm among many consumers.
EPA has been actively assessing the need to further address the issue of algal toxins, which are not currently subject to any National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR). They are sure to receive even closer consideration for inclusion in UCMR4 (see related story above) as a result of the Toledo incident. Absent an NPDWR, EPA has focused on outreach and information sharing on the issue with numerous links to further information available through its Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CyanoHABs) website.
The issue was also put in front of the National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) for consideration and potential recommendations during its December 2013 meeting. Presentations on recent problems faced by utilities in addressing HABs highlighted the need for increased scientific research, particularly for algal toxin identification, testing and treatment technique evaluation and development. Significant work is also needed to establish health effects and exposure data that could be used to set thresholds that would better inform the issuance of health advisories and help water utilities structure responses to algal toxin contamination events. Based on the presentations and its discussions of the issues, NDWAC is contemplating making recommendations to the EPA Administrator for increasing the agency’s focus on the issue and potential actions to better understand the science and regulatory implications of the increasingly prevalent threat to drinking water supplies.
Due to a timely piece of legislation, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will also be stepping up its focus on algal blooms. On June 30, President Obama signed into law the “Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Controls Amendments Act of 2014” (S. 1254), reauthorizing legislation requiring NOAA to focus on “understanding, detecting, predicting, controlling, mitigating, and responding to” algal blooms. The bill also calls for a task force to develop a plan for combatting harmful blooms that occur in the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The bill, which had rare bipartisan support, authorizes funding for algal bloom-related programs at $20.5 million annually through fiscal year 2018.