Anti-algae Bill

The Ohio House Overwhelmingly Approved New Restrictions on the Application of Manure and Other Fertilizers on Farmland as One Step to Reduce Harmful Algae Blooms on Lake Erie

The Ohio House overwhelmingly approved new restrictions on the application of manure and other fertilizers on farmland as one step to reduce harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie.

The sweeping bill also would allow telecommunications companies to back away from their commitment to maintain basic land-line telephone service as they pursue expansion of broadband and wireless alternatives.

It sets new penalties for abuses by hydraulic fracturing operations that are stronger than current law but weaker than what Gov. John Kasich initially proposed.

House Bill 490, sponsored by Rep. Dave Hall (R., Millersburg), now heads to the Senate.

The bill passed 73-20 and won the support of the entire northwest Ohio delegation with the exception of Rep. Michael Ashford (D., Toledo).

The chamber, however, voted 57-36 to reject an attempt by Rep. Teresa Fedor (D., Toledo) to remove language that opponents argue would violate the Great Lakes Compact that Ohio signed with other Great Lakes states and Ontario, Canada.

The language defines what would constitute an adverse impact from net withdrawals of water by industry and other heavy water-users. If the impact of water taken from the watershed is less than 1 percent of the water running into Lake Erie as a whole from streams and other sources on Ohio's side of the lake, the withdrawal would be considered to have no significant impact. That could change if the lake level and the runoff levels remain unusually low for a year or more.

"With less water flowing into the Maumee watershed, there's increased potential that phosphorous would become more concentrated, leading to toxic algae, and compromising the drinking water," Ms. Fedor said. "... We're back to square one."

But Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R., Napoleon), who sponsored the original Great Lakes Compact implementation law and its successor when Mr. Kasich vetoed the first, countered that the bill complies with the compact.

"Since we passed the original Great Lakes bill, I don't believe there's been a single permit issued by (the Department of Natural Resources) to withdraw additional water from any watershed that I'm aware of," he said. "So any reference that this bill or something else previous is any cause of algae bloom is nothing less that ridiculous. The water issue in Toledo has zero to do with this issue."

After initially resisting such a move, lawmakers added a prohibition that, with some exceptions, prohibits farmers from spreading manure and other fertilizers on land when the ground is frozen, ice-covered, or saturated.

The bill marks lawmakers' first action since Toledo's drinking water crisis in August, caused by the buildup of a toxin related to algae believed to be fed, in part, by phosphorous runoff into streams feeding the lake.

Source: The Blade

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Taxonomy

• Algae
• Lake Management