From the Toledo Blade‘s Tom Henry:
As Ohio winds down its first season of tracking potentially lethal blue-green algae statewide, questions arise about where researchers will get money to stay ahead of the public-health threat next summer.
As of last week, Heidelberg University’s esteemed National Center for Water Quality Research — which has generated area phosphorus data for countless Great Lakes scientists since the 1970s — had barely half the money it needs to do its annual spring sampling of the Maumee River….
… The Heidelberg lab is anticipating at least partial funding for the Sandusky in January but doesn’t have anything yet, Mr. Krieger said.
“Many groups and agencies are using our data,” Mr. Krieger said. “We’re getting a lot of verbal support, but not a lot of monetary support.”
Even as algae became a high-profile issue this summer in response to the public outcry over massive blooms in Grand Lake St. Marys and western Lake Erie, Mr. Krieger said he is spending an inordinate amount of time scrambling for grant money. …
… With the ingredients for growing algae in place, prolonged heat waves created massive blooms in western Lake Erie and several inland bodies of water — most notably, Grand Lake St. Marys, which a state EPA spokesman, Dina Pierce, said was believed to be among the nation’s 10 worst spots for algae this summer….
… State health department records show 45 human illnesses associated with various algae toxins were investigated this summer. Nearly half — 21 — of the cases originated at Grand Lake St. Marys. Lake Erie was second with 10, followed by Burr Oak State Park with seven….