"TOLEDO, Ohio — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to come out with new guidelines that will give cities and water treatment plants a blueprint for dealing with the type of algae-borne toxin that contaminated the drinking water in Ohio’s fourth-largest city, a federal official said Wednesday.

A new health advisory is on target to be finalized sometime next spring, said Peter Grevatt, director of the agency’s groundwater and drinking water office.

The advisory will include guidelines on what is a safe level of microcystin in drinking water and how to treat it, Grevatt told members of a congressional subcommittee in Washington.

The toxin that’s produced by algae found in fresh water can cause headaches or vomiting when swallowed and can be fatal to dogs and livestock."

John Seewer reports for the Associated Press November 19, 2014. [2]