University Focuses on Water Quality Issue

University of Toledo Announced It Has Formed a Task Force to Assist Local, State, and Federal Officials on Policy Issues Affecting Water Quality

The University of Toledo Water Task Force was formed in response to this summer's toxic algae bloom that made tap water unsafe for 500,000 customers of the city's water-distribution system, but its scope apparently will not be limited to that.

"As a public research university, Ohio taxpayers and U.S. taxpayers have invested in our researchers focused on the Great Lakes and water quality, in general. We have a tremendous return on that investment to offer, and this task force is an effort to create a single portal that governments and organizations can look to for answers and expertise," Frank Calzonetti, a geography professor who is UT vice president for government relations and chief of staff to the president, said.

The task force will draw on the expertise of the university's colleges, the UT Medical Center (formerly known as the Medical College of Ohio), and the UT Lake Erie Center

Another task force member, William Messer, UT vice president for research, said the university's research spans anything from "water treatment, testing and filtration to public health issues, to effects on wildlife to the laws and policies of the Great Lakes."

Interim UT President Nagi Naganathan said the task force falls in line with the university's mission to make "strategic investments in our environmental sciences, environmental engineering and medicine."

Source: Toledo Blade

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