Ten years ago, Toledoans awoke to an unexpected directive from the authorities: Don’t drink the water.

Or shower with it. Or cook with it. Or brush your teeth. Or wash your car. Y’know what, if it involves water, just don’t do it. It was a rough few days if you were Aquaman, and it was no picnic for the rest of us either. Those of us who were finishing off our second cup of coffee by the time we saw the headlines were a little worried. Those of us who didn’t make it out to the local grocery or convenience store until after 11am, hoping to find some of the bottled stuff, were out of luck. Google searches from the 419 asking “Can I wash my hair with Gatorade” went sharply up.

The problem was an algal bloom on Lake Erie whose toxic microcystins had rendered local water unsafe to touch, and for nearly three long days kids all over town had a really good excuse for not taking baths.

After three days things got better. But not that much better. Ten years later, the Environmental Protection Agency still doesn’t enforce a standard limiting microcystins in drinking water. And phosphorus runoff from large farms continues to create conditions friendly to algae formation, and plans to curb that runoff are still just talk.

Meanwhile, cyanotoxins aren’t the only category of water crisis. Just to our north, consider the catastrophic and lingering effects of Flint’s protracted struggle with lead in its water supply. Or the way microplastics are steadily turning us all into Ken dolls. Or the threat posed to coastal communities by rapidly rising sea levels. And maybe you heard about those Olympic athletes swimming in the Seine? The Library has several resources you can peruse if you want to get depressed about the liquid that makes life on Earth possible and also for some reason keeps trying to kill us.