Toledo Mayor Collins Got Imminent Water Failure Warning MONTHS Before Crisis

Two months before an algae-related toxin caused Toledo officials to impose a drinking-water ban, top city officials, including Mayor D. Michael Collins, were warned by a top state official that lagging plant repairs threatened the plant’s safe operation, according to documents obtained by The Blade.

“I cannot underscore boldly enough the precarious condition of Toledo’s drinking water system and the imminent vulnerability to failure,” Craig W. Butler, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, wrote in a June 9 letter to Mayor D. Michael Collins.

Butler wrote that the city remained in regulatory violation by having failed to correct problems with the plant’s sedimentation vent and alum system, which were cited for “significant deficiencies” in a Feb. 6 notice. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/08/08/toledo-got-harsh-warning-before-water-crisis.html