IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v7y2015i8p9787-9808d53064.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Toledo Drinking Water Advisory: Suggested Application of the Water Safety Planning Approach

Author

Listed:
  • Savitri Jetoo

    (Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L7, Canada)

  • Velma I. Grover

    (Engineering and Public Policy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L7, Canada)

  • Gail Krantzberg

    (Engineering and Public Policy, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4L7, Canada)

Abstract

On 2 August 2014 the city of Toledo, in Ohio USA issued a “do not drink” water advisory and declared a state of emergency. This was as a result of elevated levels of the toxin microcystin in the final treated water, a dangerous toxin produced by the algae cyanobacteria. The Toledo water crisis is a key focusing event that can advance dialogue on eutrophication governance in the context of public health. This paper examines the Toledo water ban with the aim of determining whether this crisis could have been averted. Further, we explore how this event can be used to stimulate action on eutrophication governance, to motivate action to protect water at its source. We use the World Health Organization’s Water Safety Planning Methodology to show that the crisis could have been averted with some simple risk management actions. We also show that a water safety planning approach could lead to well developed operational and maintenance planning resulting in a higher probability of safe drinking water.

Suggested Citation

  • Savitri Jetoo & Velma I. Grover & Gail Krantzberg, 2015. "The Toledo Drinking Water Advisory: Suggested Application of the Water Safety Planning Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(8), pages 1-22, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:8:p:9787-9808:d:53064
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/9787/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/8/9787/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kelly Andrea Aguirre & Diego Paredes Cuervo, 2023. "Water Safety and Water Governance: A Scientometric Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, April.
    2. Tolulope O. Odimayomi & Caitlin R. Proctor & Qi Erica Wang & Arman Sabbaghi & Kimberly S. Peterson & David J. Yu & Juneseok Lee & Amisha D. Shah & Christian J. Ley & Yoorae Noh & Charlotte D. Smith & , 2021. "Water safety attitudes, risk perception, experiences, and education for households impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire, California," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 108(1), pages 947-975, August.
    3. Alexandra Roeger & António F. Tavares, 2020. "Do Governance Arrangements Affect the Voluntary Adoption of Water Safety Plans? An Empirical Study of Water Utilities in Portugal," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 34(5), pages 1757-1772, March.
    4. Savitri Jetoo, 2019. "An Assessment of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP) Using the OECD Principles on Water Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:8:p:9787-9808:d:53064. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.