A water ban in Ohio was lifted Monday after tests showed the water was safe for consumption, the Associated Press reported.
About 400,000 Ohio residents were ordered Saturday not to use water from the city of Toledo for drinking, washing or cooking after a local treatment plant found levels of the toxin microcystin that were higher than the recommended consumption level.
Ohio Governor John Kasich declared a state of emergency and residents flocked to trucks for bottled water. Officials in Michigan, also affected by the ban, opened water stations for some 30,000 customers on Sunday, the AP reported.
Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins said at a news conference Monday morning residents can drink the city's water after six water samples came back negative for the toxin.
"Our water is safe," Collins said according to the AP. "Families can return to normal life," he added after taking a sip of tap water from a glass.
Residents would have suffered from rashes, cramps and vomiting if the water was consumed. The water scare was most likely caused when high levels of microcystin, an algae-induced toxin, contaminated Lake Erie.
But it remains unclear if the algae bloom located on the lake's section where the city draws its water from is strictly to blame, Kasich said.
"We just don't know," the governor told the AP.
The water ban causes a larger concern for algae blooms in general, which local water plant officials say has been increasing on Lake Erie for years and has turned the water green. Jeff Reutter, head of the research lab Ohio Sea Grant, suggested that strong winds blowing over the lake pushed the algae further to shore.
"Weather conditions made it such that bloom was going right into the water intakes," Reutter told the AP.
Ohio officials advised residents to run their water to flush out any residual toxins. But though the mayor gave the water the green light, some residents remain skeptical.
"I'm waiting for two or three days," Aretha Howard told the AP. "I have a pregnant daughter at home. She can't drink this water."
