Fighting pollution: Toledo residents want personhood status for Lake Erie

The controversial legal bill will allow citizens to sue a polluter on behalf of the lake and for penalties to be imposed

In early August 2014, Crystal Jankowski was late in her pregnancy and knew she was about due. In was hot and humid where she lived in Toledo, Ohio and she remembers just wanting to relax in a cool shower.

But the graphic designer could not take one. The water source for Toledo is Lake Erie, and an algae bloom caused in part by phosphorous runoff from farms had sickened the lake with an overload of "microcystin" bacteria. The city banned drinking the water for a week and "children, the elderly and pregnant women" were instructed not to even shower.