"I had fair warning that gathering data on blue-green algae toxins in California was going to be an uphill battle," writes reporter Stephanie Baer. Her effort started with records requests to each of the state's 58 counties.

In California, cyanotoxins have become more of a problem amid the drought. The same toxin that shut down Toledo, Ohio’s water supply in 2014 has been detected in lakes, reservoirs and streams across the state.

“To find out after the fact that this could have been avoided — you put my kid through a little nightmare here and you affected his health,” said one mother whose 13-year-old son fell ill after jet skiing in the lake.