The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it has a plan to improve water quality in Lake Erie and other Great Lakes. The announcement comes in the wake of a crisis in Toledo where water supply was turned off temporarily for a half-million residents when toxic algae bloomed. The crisis has galvanized calls for a clean-up among consumers, farmers, and researchers. Within weeks of the water crisis in Toledo, state government and Ohio State University announced plans to spend $3,000,000 to help avert a similar incident. it's a tough nut to crack says Bruce McPheron, dean of OSU's College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences. because people want to turn on their tap and get clean water. But, they also expect three meals a day and somehow we've got to balance these things.
McPheron says agriculture needs the phosphorous and nutrients in manure to grow crops. But, its those same substances that contribute to development of toxic algae in Lake Erie and other waterways that often serve as the primary source of drinking water to millions of Ohioans. Ottawa County farmer, Gerald Whipple, says he's doing what he can to keep the phosphorous and other nutrients on his land and out of the nearby stream that empties into Lake Erie, five miles from his farm. He plants cover crops and keeps stream banks lined with vegetataion. We'll try radishes, we'll try clovers, we have filter strips. We have drainways that are grass to control the water to go in the streams, says Whipple. Whipple adds he cannot put a cost figure on his efforts to keep the fertilizer in the fields. He says he does it to take care of the soil, the source of his livelihood. In the western Lake Erie watershed most of the land is used for agriculture, an estimated 70%. So farming practices received the bulk of attention after the Toledo crisis even though City sewer overflows and development of natural areas also contribute to algae blooms. Whipple says he anticipates more regulation of farming in the future. The state and federal government is going to say, hey we need to take care of this and we'll help you but this is what's going to come down the line and the next generation of farmers will be maybe more regulated, and it will cost, yes it will. Already, the U.S. EPA has announced it wants to reduce fertilizer-phosphorous run-off into the Great Lakes by 1,400 tons by 2019. At the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Director David Daniels anticipates changes in farming practices. Q: Will you see less phosphorous, less fertilizer, less manure on the fields in the future? I think that you might this year, says Daniels. Daniels says interest in the department's fertilizer certification programs has already spiked. But he says short term fixes for reducing run-off are limited. Obviously there's probably going to be some residual nutrients in the lake that we're probably going to have to deal with for a few years but I do think we are doing the best we can and stepping up as soon as possible," says Daniels. Ohio has earmarked $2,000,000 to develop programs to reduce field run-off. OSU's McPheron says the University will spend an additional $1,000,000 on research into toxic algae blooms and how to prevent them. Long-term we need more science to help us understand how we can produce food sustainably which requires fertilizer input, says McPheron.