Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes, and the West end, around Toledo, is very shallow. I’ve sailed there. Heats up quickly. And we’ve had a very rainy season, with a lot of water flowing into the lake from farms. Lots of phosphate. All that promotes algae growth, and that actually happens pretty often there. I hop it doesn’t spread to the Cleveland/Mentor area. Lots more peeps than the Toledo area. Akron/Summit County has reservoirs that frequently have algae blooms, resulting in poor quality, discolored water.
Yup. A lot bigger deal is being made about it than it really is. More of an inconvenience than anything.
Very unlikely to spread beyond the Toledo area as the lake around Toledo is in a different water basin of Lake Erie than Cleveland. It is much shallower and Toledo is in an area where the water is actually much more stagnant. Also The Cleveland Water Department has deep water intake cribs several miles out in the lake.
One of the problems that causes the blooms is the Zebra Muscles. They clean the lake making it clearer. The sunlight penetrates farther into the water promoting more algae growth.