Ohio’s algae spending does little, study finds

Billions of dollars spent across the border in recent years to address toxic algae blooms on western Lake Erie has made little difference in addressing the problem, according to a report by the Ohio Environment Protection Agency. “Overall, the results of this study show no clear trend of an overall decrease in loading in most watersheds, especially in non-point source dominated watersheds like the Maumee (River) where the loading in 2017 was the highest of the years reported,” the study concluded.

Ohio has spent more than US$6 billion across the state, including more than $3 billion spent in the Lake Erie watershed to improve water quality since 2011, according to the report.

The Maumee watershed includes hundreds of farms that line a stretch of roughly 200 km between Ft. Wayne, Ind. and Toledo. “In the Maumee watershed, there has been no discernible decrease in phosphorous or nutrient loading to Lake Erie, which continues to exceed the 40 per cent phosphorous reduction requirement, the report concluded. The findings are problematic given that Ontario, Michigan and Ohio signed an agreement in 2015 to reduce nutrient loads reaching Lake Erie by 40 per cent by 2025. “We are not on the trajectory we need to be,” to reach that target, Ohio EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer told the Detroit Free Press.

On the positive side, annual nutrient loads from industrial and municipal sources decreased 34 per cent between 2013 and 2017, the report said.

But run-off from farmlands continues to be a major issue. The study comes on the heels on an International Joint Commission report in February which concluded if “bold actions” were not immediately taken to address excess phosphorus from fertilizer and manure runoffs on both sides of the border, the lake will return to the grave danger it was in 50 years ago.

Aggressive government strategies in the 1970s and 1980s helped nurse Lake Erie to better health until recent years.

“We need to address this issue with new policies and actions because so much of the west basin (of Lake Erie) is agricultural,” said the IJC’s Matthew Child after the release of the February report which he co-authored.

“We were successful before and we can be successful again.”