Lake Erie Impairment Designation and Potential New Mandates on Agriculture

By Chris Henney, OABA President and CEO

By now, I’m sure you’ve seen in the news that the Ohio EPA announced last Thursday, through their latest Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report, the decision to declare the open waters of the Western Lake Erie Basin as impaired. While this isn’t great news, it also isn’t a surprise based on litigation over the last few years and, ultimately, the US EPA’s rejection of OEPA’s rationale for not listing the lake as impaired. OABA will be reviewing the report and will determine how we should proceed with compiling and submitting comments to OEPA before the May 4th deadline. You can access the report here.

Prior to Thursday’s public announcement I participated in an OEPA conference call for agricultural stakeholders. On this call, OEPA Director Craig Butler gave us a heads up on the impairment designation. He also shared OEPA’s intent to have state legislation introduced that would put additional mandates on Ohio agriculture, including an intent to define commercial fertilizer as an ag pollutant. While the bill hasn’t been introduced yet, I am very concerned about the additional mandates proposed.

Ohio’s ag retailers have taken great voluntary steps to reducing nutrient runoff and improving water quality in Lake Erie. We’re very proud of the efforts and leadership displayed by our membership. OABA and our members were proactive in the development of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification Program. As you know, the program was developed and launched prior to the Toledo Water Crisis of 2014. Following the crisis, we provided input for and supported new regulations that aimed to reduce runoff, such as Senate Bill 1 and S.B. 150. At this time, we believe voluntary efforts are still the best way to improving water quality, over increased regulations. Ohio agricultural organizations recently joined together to send this message to Gov. Kasich. Here is a link to that letter.

As this evolves and we work through the legislative and regulatory process, we will be seeking input from our membership. Keep an eye out for further updates as your agribusiness association works for you!