TOLEDO, OH (AP)-- Federal regulators are hoping to release new guidelines next year that would give cities a blueprint for how to tackle the same type of toxins that contaminated the drinking water in Ohio's fourth-largest city.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday that the new health advisory is on target to be finalized sometime next spring.
The agency's groundwater and drinking water chief says work on the new guidelines began well before toxins from algae in Lake Erie fouled the water in Toledo and southeastern Michigan for two days in August.
Environmental regulators from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan met with U.S. EPA officials after Toledo's water crisis to press the agency for more help in dealing with the toxins.