lake erie algae bloom hand in water.jpg

Hazardous algal blooms such as this in 2011 will become more common on Lake Erie if action is not taken to reduce agricultural runoff, a report says.

(file photo)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A consortium of four Ohio universities and the Ohio Lake Erie Commission were awarded a $500,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant this week to study the causes of harmful algae blooms that have closed Lake Erie's beaches, affected its drinking water, and contributed to low oxygen areas where fish can't survive.

The grant will be used to examine the role nutrients like phosphorous play in the growth of the gooey green gobs that multiplied so vigorously in 2011 that they covered almost a fifth of Lake Erie's surface, gumming up boat motors and closing beaches.

Toxins produced by the algae are also forcing towns that rely on the lake for drinking water to spend millions of extra dollars on water treatment. This September, Carroll Township, which is west of Toledo, banned residents from using the water for several days because of the algae problem.

According to the office of Warrensville Heights Democratic Rep. Marcia Fudge, the researchers intend to look for ways to control the introduction of nutrients like phosphorous into the lake, and prepare models that will predict how land use and climate change will affect the lake ecosystem in the future.

"Dealing with harmful algal blooms must be a top priority," Toledo Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur said in a press release on the grant. "Along with invasive species, they are the most serious threats to the Lake Erie Ecosystem."

Ohio Lake Erie Commission director Gail Hesse said her organization will collaborate with Case Western Reserve University, Heidelberg, Ohio State and the University of Toledo and a Michigan-based environmental modelling company called Limnotech to collect and analyze data about the introduction of phosphorous and nitrogen into the lake.

"A little bit of these nutrients are a good thing, but too much and we get the algae blooms," said Hesse, whose organization coordinates efforts of six Ohio cabinet agencies to address matters that pertain to Lake Erie.

A report that her organization released Wednesday recommended that farms adopt better practices to reduce fertilizer runoff from their fields, which feed the algae blooms.

"While rainfall patterns and storm events will continue to drive the scope of algal blooms in future years, sustained efforts to reduce nutrient loading will reduce the blooms overall," the report said.

Hesse said passage of the Clean Water Act and banning phosphorous from laundry and dish detergent reduced serious phosphorous problems in Lake Erie during the 1960s and 1970s. She said phosphorous from agriculture and wastewater treatment plants became a problem in the lake again in the 1990s.

"It is a very complex issue," Hesse said.

The grant was awarded under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.