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ENSURING SAFE DRINKING WATER IN LAKE ERIE: QUANTIFYING EXTREME WEATHER IMPACTS ON CYANOBACTERIA AND DISINFECTION BYPRODUCTS (DPBS)
Impact/Purpose:
Our scientific objectives are: (1) to assess the link between historic and current extreme weather events and water quality indicators using satellite and field work data, including water color (photosynthetically available radiation, chlorophyll concentration), temperature, turbidity, precipitation, river discharge, ice/snow/flood extents, (2) to understand the linkages of extreme weather events with source and finished water quality including cyanobacteria densities, cyanotoxins, DBPs, and nutrient concentrations, and (3) to model and predict adverse impacts to source and finished water to understand the future impact of extreme weather events on water safety in Lake Erie.
Description:
The Great Lakes hold 95% of our Nation's and 20% of World's fresh water supply, and it is home to 30% of the US population. II million people rely on drinking water from Lake Erie, the most southern and biologicaJiy productive lake among the Great Lakes. Under increasing anthropogenic warming, with postulated consequences of intensified extreme weather events, Lake Erie, already with excessive nutrients from intensive agriculture and sewer overflows from metropolitan areas, is prone to see its drinking water quality further impaired. The central hypotheses ofthe proposed studies are: (1) global warming- induced extreme weather events (heavier snow/rainstorms, increased flooding, excessive heat and prolonged droughts) are correlated with increased nutrients, turbidity and harmful algal bloom (HAB) in the proposed Lake Erie study regions: Toledo and Painesville, (2) increased HABs in source water will increase cyanotoxin concentrations in finished drinking water, and (3) HABs in Lake Erie source water will interact with chlorine disinfectants used in water treatment process, which in turn will increase harmful disinfectant byproducts (DPBs) concentrations in finished drinking water. This grave concern has not been considered before.