OREGON, Ohio (AP) — On a warm late summer evening, a small speedboat cruised across a pea-green stretch of Lake Erie, past a beach where a child splashed and a newlywed couple waded toward a portrait photographer. On the sand, bright red signs, unseen or ignored, warned people to stay out of the water because of dangerous algae toxins.
About 70 miles away, farmer Bill Kellogg is trying to do something about chronic algae blooms in America’s southernmost Great Lake. Instead of spreading fertilizer on his fields, Kellogg now uses a stripping machine that drives fertilizer pellets 8 inches into the soil – deep enough that heavy rains won’t wash them away.
He plants cover crops that strengthen the soil so it can absorb more nutrients. In other fields, he has replaced some crops with buffer strips of grasses and other plants that can absorb nutrient runoff before it flows into streams toward Erie, where the runoff would provide powerful fuel for the algae.
“We accept that we have a target on our back in the agricultural community,” Kellogg said.
Bacteria commonly called blue-green algae are commonly present in water bodies around the world, but when fed too much of the phosphorus and nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers, they can turn into harmful algal blooms that can taint drinking water and cause oxygen-depleted deaths. zones that kill marine life, spoil swimming, boating and tourism and endanger human health.
Western Lake Erie is an ideal environment for the bacteria to thrive: It is about 30 feet deep, the shallowest part of the shallowest Great Lake, and it warms more quickly when the temperature is warm. And it’s where nutrients from agricultural fields along streams and creeks throughout the basin ultimately flow into the Maumee River, which flows into Erie near Toledo.
Nutrient runoff from agricultural fields, mainly fertilizer, is responsible for about 80% of the nutrients flowing into Lake Erie, and half of the nutrients that reach the lake arrive via the Maumee.
Reducing nutrients — especially phosphorus — was one of the focuses of a 2015 agreement between the United States and Canada to reduce the amount of phosphorus going to Erie by 40% by 2025. Researchers say progress has been made – the latest figure is that phosphorus has fallen about 32% – but the target is unlikely to be met.
Algal blooms in western Lake Erie were moderate this year compared to previous years. It appeared on June 24, the earliest since monitoring began, and the late summer peak covered about 660 square kilometers – larger than some previous years, but not nearly as thick as some other blooms.
Global warming is expected to cause algae blooms to start earlier, last longer and potentially become more toxic as heavier rains push nutrients through waterways and higher temperatures warm the lake.
“If everything stays the same and the climate changes in the ways we expect in the coming decades, things will get worse,” said Nate Manning, interim director of the National Center for Water Quality Research.
For Kellogg, who grows 3,400 acres of corn and soybeans in Forest, Ohio, conservation efforts on his farm have long been a personal priority; he regularly visits Lake Erie with his family to fish and swim. But he became even more involved after a 2014 boom that led to a temporary shutoff of drinking water for more than 400,000 people in Toledo and southern Michigan.
“Once that happened, we kicked into high gear,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg spent more than a million dollars on the strip plow machine and the tractor to pull it, which allows him to put the solid manure several inches underground. It was a big expense, but he said he now spends about $300,000 less on fertilizer because less of it runs off. The liquid fertilizer he sometimes uses is stored in tanks set in a concrete box to catch any spills.
“Our revenues have increased. Our fertilizer costs have fallen. Once you’re hooked on something and you’ve proven to yourself that it works, no one has to pay us anything to do it,” Kellogg said.
Near Sandusky Bay, on the southwestern part of Lake Erie, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is working with other conservation groups to restore wetlands that filter nutrient runoff before it enters the bay. At one location, engineers have reconnected water channels through former agricultural lands to return the area to a wetland state. In another country, island barriers are built next to the coastline to promote filtration.
As part of the H2Ohio program launched in 2019, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and its conservation partners have completed 23 wetland restoration projects in the western Lake Erie Basin, with 49 more ongoing. These help, but are only part of the solution, said Mary Mertz, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“You can’t just build wetlands and clean up Lake Erie,” she said. “Other things need to be done.”
Researchers at the National Center for Water Quality Research in Tiffin continuously monitor phosphorus levels in the water. Their data shows that phosphorus loads in western Lake Erie are trending downward, but the 40% reduction target is not being consistently met.
“There’s a lot to be positive about,” Manning said.
But more funding is needed and more farmers need to adopt conservation and nutrient management practices, said Emily Kelly, the Ohio Environmental Council’s agriculture and water coordinator. A 2023 report from that group and the Alliance for the Great Lakes shows that Ohio will need to increase spending between $170 million and $250 million to meet these reduction goals. Michigan needs to spend between $40 and $65 million.
Ohio farmers have included about 1.5 million acres in the western Lake Erie basin in a nutrient management plan with the state, according to 2023 data. That’s about 43% of the watershed’s cropland, with the goal of enrolling at least half, Carissa said. Cochrane, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Farmers develop their own plan and are eligible for incentive payments of up to $40 per acre, although they are not required to meet nutrient load reduction goals. They work with local soil and water conservation districts to choose which practices, such as cover crops and targeted fertilization, work best in their fields.
To get results, some farmers may need multiple practices, such as buffer strips and expensive machines like Kellogg’s. All that may discourage some, said Jordan Hoewischer, director of water quality and research at the Ohio Farm Bureau.
Kellogg believes that if more farmers voluntarily adopt these conservation practices, the government will be less likely to intervene with regulations. He prefers farmers to do it themselves.
“We were probably part of the problem to begin with,” Kellogg said. “It’s up to us to be part of the solution.”
_____
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental reporting receives funding from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s Standards for Working with Charities, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at AP.org.