Michigan, Ohio officials to tackle Lake Erie algae threat to fish, tourism

By: John Flesher

Asso­ci­ated Press

TRAVERSE CITY — Offi­cials in Michi­gan and Ohio agreed last week to coop­er­ate more closely to find solu­tions to mas­sive algae blooms in Lake Erie, a deadly threat to fish and a turn-off for tourists.

Del­e­ga­tions from both states, includ­ing their top envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion offi­cials, said Wednes­day that they will push harder for reduc­tions in phos­pho­rus dis­charges from farms, waste-treatment plants and other sources while shar­ing ideas and sup­port­ing research. The U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency pledged tech­ni­cal and finan­cial assistance.

“We all agreed that while more research is needed, that shouldn’t be a bar­rier to tak­ing action now,” said Susan Hed­man, chief of the EPA’s regional office in Chicago. “It’s absolutely clear that we need to reduce nutri­ent load­ing to the west­ern end of Lake Erie.”

Phos­pho­rus is a key nutri­ent for algae. Bans on phos­pho­rus in laun­dry deter­gent helped rid the Great Lakes of exces­sive algae decades ago. But the prob­lem has resur­faced in recent years, par­tic­u­larly on Lakes Erie and Michigan.

Of par­tic­u­lar con­cern on Erie, shal­low­est of the lakes, is explo­sive growth of a blue-green type that can be toxic. It reduces oxy­gen lev­els in the water, poi­sons fish and lit­ters beaches with stink­ing mats of rot­ting vegetation.

“It’s put a big dent in char­ter boat fish­ing,” said Scott Nally, direc­tor of the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency. “We’ve seen a lot of tourism drop off the last cou­ple of years.”

Some inter­est groups in Michi­gan have blamed farms in the water­shed — mostly on the Ohio side of the line. Manure and fer­til­iz­ers spread on crop­lands are washed into streams dur­ing rain­storms and wind up in the lake. Mean­while, Ohio groups have tar­geted over­flows from Detroit’s sewage treat­ment system.

Dur­ing a meet­ing at Maumee Bay State Park near Toledo, offi­cials from both states agreed a truce was needed.

“We’ve got to stop point­ing fin­gers and come up with a solu­tion and all do our part,” said Dan Wyant, direc­tor of the Michi­gan Depart­ment of Envi­ron­men­tal Quality.

Ohio plans to work more closely with farm­ers on fer­til­izer appli­ca­tion prac­tices that can reduce runoff and may bor­row ideas from a vol­un­tary Michi­gan pro­gram that pro­vides edu­ca­tion and incen­tives, Nally said.

He said his state also will require cities and busi­nesses obtain­ing water dis­charge per­mits to have nutri­ent man­age­ment strategies.

Michi­gan, mean­while, will encour­age more farms to par­tic­i­pate in the pollution-prevention pro­gram while con­tin­u­ing efforts to pre­vent sewage over­flows, Wyant said.

The EPA has des­ig­nated the Maumee River water­shed, which flows into west­ern Lake Erie, as one of three that will receive stepped-up fund­ing for projects aimed at reduc­ing algae growth under a pro­gram called the Great Lakes Restora­tion Initiative.

Posted by Cindy Farrar on Apr 13 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.