Engineers and researchers nationwide recently traveled to The University of Toledo, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) hosted an interagency research and development workshop in Wolfe Hall and Bowman-Oddy Laboratories.
The workshop primarily focused on freshwater harmful algal blooms, which are rapid growths of algae or cyanobacteria that can harm people, animals or the environment. Harmful algal blooms are a global concern that receives significant attention in Toledo, where a bloom that settled over the raw water intake in the western basin of Lake Erie led to a drinking water crisis in 2014.
Approximately 120 participants from federal and state agencies and academic institutions participated in the three-day workshop, which included a poster session on Wednesday, June 12. Agencies that participated in the workshop included USACE, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Ohio Department of Health and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosted an interagency research and development workshop on freshwater harmful algal blooms in Wolfe Hall and Bowman-Oddy Laboratories. The workshop included a poster session on Wednesday, June 12.
Ashleigh Boss, a biological scientist for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, listens as Sina Zalbegi, a doctoral candidate in civil engineering at The University of Toledo, explains his team’s research to identify bacterial-based products for controlling harmful algae blooms.
