Around 500,000 in Ohio without drinking water as tested for toxins

By George Tanber TOLEDO Ohio (Reuters) – Some 500,000 residents in and around Toledo, Ohio were without safe drinking water for a second day on Sunday while local water supplies were being tested following the discovery of high toxin levels from algae on Lake Erie. Health officials sent samples to several laboratories on Saturday for testing after finding Lake Erie may have been affected by a “harmful algal bloom,” but results would not return until Sunday, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said. The lake provides the bulk of the area’s drinking water.