Algae Leads to 'Impaired' Designation for Western Lake Erie

Until now, Ohio has resisted calls by environmental groups and some political leaders to issue an impairment declaration, saying federal regulators didn’t have standards to trigger such a decision for the lake’s open waters.

Officials within Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s administration also have been worried that calling the lake impaired would wrongly give the impression that it’s no longer safe as a drinking water source or for boaters and swimmers.

Determining that a body of water is impaired can lead to a federal order for stricter pollution regulations. But whether that will happen isn’t clear.

Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency worked with university researchers to come up with a measurement standard and determined that water samples show the western part of Lake Erie aren’t meeting water quality standards, state EPA Director Craig Butler said.

The move comes as a federal judge is considering a lawsuit filed by environmental groups who want the lake classified impaired, hoping it would pave the way for increased pollution controls.

Butler said he doesn’t expect the EPA to order any new regulations because Ohio already has a federally approved plan in place to combat the algae that now turns the lake’s blue waters into unsightly shades of green most summers.

An algae bloom in 2014 left more than 400,000 people around Toledo unable to drink their tap water for two days. The following year’s outbreak was the largest yet.

Blooms also have been blamed for fish kills and can sicken swimmers.

Two weeks ago, the U.S. EPA called for increased efforts to reduce the phosphorus that feeds the algae but didn’t recommend any new regulations.

Instead, the federal strategy relies on existing state and local programs and voluntary actions by farmers to prevent fertilizers, manure and sewage from flowing into waterways. It said some tougher rules might be needed but leaves those decisions to the states.

Environmental groups that have become frustrated by the pace and depth of those efforts applauded Ohio’s move, but they said tougher and enforceable regulations throughout the western Lake Erie region are still needed.

“Voluntary efforts haven’t been enough,” said Howard Learner, of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, which brought the lawsuit seeking the impairment designation. “To be clear, this is a first step and not the ending.”

Peter Bucher, of the Ohio Environmental Council, said that without a plan to reduce the pollutants, Lake Erie will be “inundated by yearly large-scale algal blooms for the foreseeable future.”

Ohio officials say the impairment designation doesn’t mean that the western end of the lake isn’t safe or that it should be avoided when there are no algae blooms in the water.

The worry, though, is that it will cause people to think twice about visiting the lake, Butler said.

“I’m very concerned about the negative consequences this could bring for our tourism and fishing industries for very little environmental gain,” he said.

Ohio’s impairment designation covers an area of the lake that stretches roughly 60 miles — from Toledo to Marblehead — and is popular with boaters and anglers.

Until now, the state had designated only shoreline waters and a small area near Toledo’s water intake pipe as impaired.

The impairment designation is part of a two-year evaluation of all state waterways that’s mandated by the Clean Water Act.