Costs of algae problem mounting

COLUMBUS - Toxic-algae warning signs appeared at another state park Friday, as Ohio's list of troubled waters and its costs to monitor them continue to grow.

Maumee Bay State Park near Oregon in Lucas County is now the 11th state park where officials will test water for four health-threatening, algae-produced liver and nerve toxins. That's after workers reported a bloom of blue-green algae, also called cyanobacteria, near the park's beach along Lake Erie.

The state is warning people to minimize contact with Maumee Bay water, steer clear of any algae scum and avoid swallowing lake water while tests are run.

All the testing has cost taxpayers more than $41,000 since June 2009, according to records and estimates provided by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

That figure does not include time that state officials spend looking for algae, gathering and shipping water samples to labs or posting warning signs around lakes, ponds and beaches. It also doesn't include work to notify the public and media of new algae sightings and water-test results.

The Department of Natural Resources has spent $12,600 so far to help test eight state-park lakes and a golf-course pond at Shawnee State Park. That's in addition to tests at Grand Lake St. Marys in western Ohio, the subject of weekly testing since summer 2009.

Mike Shelton, a Natural Resources spokesman, said his department pays for the tests with park-maintenance and operations funds. Linda Merchant-Masonbrink, the Ohio EPA's inland-lake program coordinator, said she doesn't know what fund the money comes from.

''If there is a bloom report and I think it needs to have toxin analysis, I do it," Merchant-Masonbrink said. "They need to find the money from somewhere."

The Ohio Department of Health has six employees working on the problem, which includes advising county and city health departments about algae and related illnesses. Spokeswoman Jen House said it's difficult to say how much extra work or expense has occurred because of algae.

The agency is investigating 13 cases of illness that might be linked to toxic water at Grand Lake St. Marys and seven cases that might be linked to the lake at Burr Oak State Park.

Blue-green algae are a common inhabitant of most Ohio lakes and streams, but they grow thick in water polluted with manure, fertilizers and raw sewage.

Though Maumee Bay State Park will add to the state's costs, Kelly Schlissberg, spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Strickland, said the government efforts and expenses must match the growing public concern over blue-green algae statewide.

''It's fair to say that awareness has grown about this," Schlissberg said. "If we are getting more and more questions about this, we absolutely want to respond to those questions as best we can.

''It's a matter of public health."