Great Lakes (IL IN MI MN OH WI)

Several hundred thousand residents of the Toledo, Ohio, area remained Monday morning under an advisory not to drink their tapwater. Labs found microcystin, a toxin produced by blue-green algae, in the water. The algae are blooming in western Lake Erie, from which the city draws its water, because of phosphorus frpm farm runoff, lawn fertilizer, and sewage overflow. At a 3 am news conference, Mayor D. Michael Collins said the advisory would ramain in effect for some hours although tests showed microcystin in the water returning to safe levels. The crisis disrupted people's lives on a massive scale as bottled water was distributed.

"In the dog days of summer, Nick Anthony wouldn't swim in Lake of the Woods unless some money was involved."

"ST. LOUIS, Mich. – Jim Hall was mowing the town’s baseball diamond when he felt a little bump underneath him. “And there it was, a dead robin,” he said."

"June 1, 1988, the day everything changed for the Great Lakes, was sunny, hot and mostly calm — perfect weather for the young researchers from the University of Windsor who were hunting for critters crawling across the bottom of Lake St. Clair."

"MINNEAPOLIS — When city leaders and state legislators agreed last year to fund roughly half the $1 billion cost of a new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings, they attached the usual strings for such projects: It had to be architecturally iconic, employ steel made from Minnesota iron ore and offer at least a few cheap seats."

"It didn’t smell when Brittney Willis closed on her Midtown condominium on Halloween of 2011."

"The Kewaunee nuclear power plant stopped producing electricity more than a year ago, but it left behind highly hazardous waste that has no place to go."

"ET Rover Pipeline Company has set a date of June 2017 to have the natural gas pipeline, which will cross Ohio and Michigan, running."

"The polar vortex came with a silver lining: Water levels are up on the Great Lakes this summer, providing welcome news to boaters, beach-goers and cottagers who have become increasingly nervous about changing shorelines."

"MONTAGUE, Mich. — For more than 30 years, the beautiful resort community along White Lake near the shore of Lake Michigan has struggled to get out from under the weight of its past. It’s a past that includes growth sparked by the arrival of the chemical industry, and the physical and psychological scars left behind."