Judge sets a deadline for plan to reduce algae growth on Lake Erie


By Karen Graham
Published May 6, 2023

Harmful algae bloom. Bolles Harbor, Monroe, MI, Lake Erie. July 22, 2011.. Source - NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laborat, CC SA 2.0.

Ohio’s environmental regulators will have until the end of June to finish a plan aimed at combatting algae in Lake Erie.

Toxic algae blooms have plagued Lake Erie since before the 1990s, and have become more common, with the lake experiencing its largest algae bloom in 2011.

The bloom was composed of potentially toxic Microcystis and Anabaena. This bloom was linked to agricultural practices in the watersheds of the lake and warmer than normal conditions as expected with regional climate change.

The pollution diet is part of a settlement agreement a federal judge approved Thursday. The consent decree also calls for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to either approve the plan within 90 days or come up with its plan own if the federal agency determines the state’s proposal isn’t strong enough, CTV News Canada reports.

The agreement brings an end to a lawsuit seeking to force mandatory pollution rules for the lake. The Environmental Law and Policy Center, along with Lucas County Commissioners, sued the Ohio EPA in 2017, asking that there be a limit to the amount of phosphorus going into the lake through a total maximum daily load

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Harmful algae bloom. Lake Erie. July 22, 2011. Credit: NOAA. CC SA 2.0.

The worst blooms in the past decade have been in 2011 and 2015. That was when Ohio agreed to reduce phosphorus runoff into the lake by 40 percent to limit the blooms.

Nearly all of the phosphorus that fuels the blooms comes from farm fertilizer and livestock manure, researchers have found. Ohio already has been working for months to develop a pollution plan that would set “total maximum daily loads” and impose specific limits on phosphorus that flows into the lake.