In the bright green algal blooms that form in warm weather, cyanobacteria produce a toxin called microcystin. Microcystin has been known to kill dogs, birds, and livestock and cause nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting in people. Just over a dozen people employed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are tasked with monitoring algal blooms in the Great Lakes watershed, which more than 40 million people depend on for the water that comes out of their taps. The NOAA team passes information about harmful algal growth and toxicity on to municipal water treatment plants in time for them to protect people, pets, and businesses from being poisoned. 

Last Thursday, the head of that team was fired, alongside hundreds of other NOAA employees. Bret Collier, who holds a Ph.D. in biology, started running the Ecosystem Dynamics branch at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Michigan last May. Like most other “probationary” employees across NOAA and the National Weather Service—those who were new to the federal workforce, took on new positions, or were promoted—he received a late-afternoon email notifying him that he was being fired, effective at 5 p.m. 

“When you remove a staffer, there’s not another staffer that can just pick up that work. I don’t want to say we don’t have a deep bench. There’s no bench. We’re one deep everywhere,” he told me. “If we can’t do our job, you can’t drink the water.”

NOAA is best known for its weather forecasts that alert people about the path of oncoming hurricanes, tornadoes, and tsunamis. Its lesser-known “wet side” operations perform a long list of vital services baked into the operations of other federal agencies and private businesses, often in sparsely staffed offices. Close allies of Trump—including several now serving in his administration—laid out plans to virtually abolish the entire agency in Project 2025, clearing the way for private companies like Accuweather to snap up lucrative new government contracts for work that has long been considered a public service. Elon Musk’s team at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency

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