Documentary Showing: The Erie Situation

On Thursday, June 29, view “Erie Situation,” an award-winning documentary directed by David J. Ruck. Following the screening, Bowling Green State University Professor Emeritus Dr. George Bullerjahn will give a brief talk back.

In 2014, the citizens of Toledo, Ohio had to go without running water for three days when a bloom of highly toxic algae entered the drinking water plant from Lake Erie. This should have been a wake up call for politicians, big agriculture, and citizens everywhere that freshwater resources are at risk of becoming toxic.

The Erie Situation explores the confluence of science, public sentiment, politics and the powerful farming lobby as Ohio wrestles with how to confront the drivers of toxic algae in one of the Great Lakes.

What’s at stake?  Who’s at risk?  And will volunteer measures be enough to confront this growing crisis, both in Ohio and beyond?

George Bullerjahn, Ph.D., is currently Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at Bowling Green State University and is Director of the NIEHS/NSF Great Lakes Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health. His research focuses on chronic cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cHABs), which can produce toxins that harm human and animal health. Prof. Bullerjahn and colleagues are identifying the environmental factors that drive cHAB and examining how climate change may affect cHAB growth and toxicity of cyanobacteria during bloom events. This research builds on the work of several collaborating institutions in response to the 2014 Toledo Water Crisis, in which the city’s water supply was contaminated with cHAB toxins. Prof. Bullerjahn received his A.B. at Dartmouth College, his Ph.D. at The University of Virginia, and was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Missouri. Along with the students in his laboratory, he has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and received over $8 million in Federal funds to support his research. He has collaborated with scientists in Europe, Asia and North America on projects focused on the microbiology of freshwaters.