Ohio could become one of three states to establish limits for farm and sewage-treatment-plant pollution that feeds toxic algae in lakes.
An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency proposal under review by federal officials would establish limits for phosphorus and nitrogen in streams. Both are found in fertilizers, manure and sewage. They’re called nutrients because they help plants, including algae, grow.
Phosphorus in fertilizers that rain washes off farm fields feeds blooms of blue-green algae in western Lake Erie and inland lakes across Ohio each summer. The algae produce liver and nerve toxins that can sicken people and animals.
Ohio rivers also carry nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico, where they contribute to a huge oxygen-depleted dead zone off the mouth of the Mississippi River.
Ohio EPA Director Scott Nally said he is optimistic that U.S. EPA officials will approve the proposal, which would be used to set specific limits for each Ohio stream.
Because of the partial government shutdown, federal officials were unavailable to comment. Approval would put Ohio on a path to join Florida and Wisconsin as the only other states setting limits for phosphorus and nitrogen in waterways.
Florida adopted its standards in 2011 after environmental advocates sued the U.S. EPA to demand them. Wisconsin set phosphorus limits in 2010 after environmental groups threatened to sue, said Amanda Minks, a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources resource specialist.
Wisconsin rivers cannot have phosphorus levels that exceed a concentration of 100 parts per billion. Phosphorus in smaller streams, including creeks, can’t exceed 75 parts per billion.
Minks said Wisconsin is enforcing tougher water-pollution restrictions for sewage-treatment plants and is offering farmers grants and incentives to reduce storm runoff from their fields.
Instead of an across-the-board approach like Wisconsin’s, Ohio’s plan would use a formula that weighs phosphorus and nitrogen in water as well as the amount of algae and fish and other aquatic wildlife. The strategy takes into account that some streams can still be considered healthy at higher concentrations of nutrients, Nally said. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Groups that represent Ohio’s sewage-treatment plants support the plan. Dax Blake, who is Columbus’ sewers and drains administrator and president of the Association of Ohio Wastewater Management Agencies, said it’s a sound approach.
Blake said he is optimistic that Columbus won’t have to install any treatment equipment to meet phosphorus or nitrogen standards for the Scioto River.
Larry Antosch, the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s environmental-policy director, said his organization needs more details on how the limits might affect farmers.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to establish a (limit) so low that it’s not attainable,” Antosch said.
Anthony Sasson of the Ohio Nature Conservancy said the U.S. EPA might not approve of the Ohio EPA’s tailored approach. He said streams with higher concentrations of phosphorus might be deemed healthy but still contribute to algae blooms in a lake downstream.
But Ohio EPA spokesman Chris Abbruzzese said the stream limits will help the state’s overall efforts to stop algae blooms in lakes. “It’s a positive step in the right direction.”