algae.jpeg

A toxic algal bloom in 2014 forced the three-day shutdown of Toledo's drinking water system, where this photograph was taken.

(AP file photo)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. and Canada struck a deal Monday to adopt targets to reduce algae-feeding phosphorus entering Lake Erie by 40 percent.

By reaching the 40 percent targets, the two countries hope to minimize low oxygen "dead zones" in the central basin of Lake Erie, maintain healthy aquatic ecosystems, and keep algal blooms at levels that do not produce toxins that pose a threat to human or ecosystem health.

In 2012, the U.S. and Canada signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement in which the neighboring countries committed to combat the growing threat of toxic algae in Lake Erie, and to develop updated bi-national phosphorus reduction targets for Lake Erie by 2016.

Canada and the U.S. agreed to develop domestic action plans by no later than February 2018 to help meet the new targets.

Environmental groups praised the 40 percent reduction agreement.

"The adoption of the phosphorus reduction loading targets for Lake Erie is a critical step towards the restoration of Lake Erie," said Mike Shriberg of the National Wildlife Federation. "Collective agreement on the targets on both sides of the border positions all parties for coordinated action on meeting the shared goal of a healthy Lake Erie."

Last June, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario signed a pact agreeing to reduce phosphorus by 40 percent by 2025, with an interim goal of 20 percent by 2020. The Ohio EPA is expected to offer its proposal for ways to meet those goals by next month.

A news release announcing the U.S./Canada phosphorus reduction agreement did not mention a target year for reaching the 40 percent level.

U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said the Great Lakes must be restored to protect public health for all those who depend on them.

"The first step in our urgent work together to protect Lake Erie from toxic algae, harmful algal blooms, and other effects of nutrient runoff, is to establish these important phosphorus limits," McCarthy said. "But establishing these targets is not the end of our work together. We are already taking action to meet them."

Those sentiments were echoed by Catherine McKenna, Canada's minister of Environment and Climate Change.

"Canada recognizes the urgency and magnitude of the threat to Lake Erie water quality and ecosystem health posed by toxic and nuisance algal blooms," she said. "By establishing these targets, we strengthen our resolve to work with our American neighbors, and Canadian and U.S. stakeholders who share these waters, to protect the tremendous natural resource that is Lake Erie."

The majority of phosphorus has been traced to fertilizer and manure runoff from farm fields in the Maumee River valley and the land surrounding the Lake Erie's Western Basin.



Algae occur naturally in freshwater systems. High amounts of phosphorus can produce too much algae, such as the massive blooms of the past several years.