"TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Climate change and invasive mussels may have made Lake Erie a more inviting host for toxic bacteria in recent years, suggesting that ambitious goals are needed for reducing phosphorus runoff that feeds large blooms like the one that forced a temporary tap water shutdown in and near Toledo, Ohio, scientists said Wednesday.

Ever-larger mats of cyanobacteria, commonly known as blue-green algae, have formed on Erie since the early 2000s. They produce microcystin, a toxin that has killed pets and livestock and causes liver damage in humans. The soupy green glop prompted do-not-drink orders for two days in August that affected about 400,000 residents of northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan.

Experts blame the outbreaks largely on phosphorus that washes into the lake from fertilized farmland and sewage treatment plants. But in a report published online in the journal Water Resources Research, scientists said computer models found that neither rising phosphorus levels nor warming water temperatures alone could explain why the lake was becoming more hospitable toward cyanobacteria."

John Flesher reports for the Associated Press October 15, 2014. [2]