Todd Spangler

Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — Environmental groups are suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to force a decision on whether western Lake Erie in Ohio should be declared impaired following massive toxic algae blooms in 2014 and 2015 that affected water quality in the region.

A coalition of groups filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. today, asking that a judge order the EPA to decide whether to accept the state of Ohio’s finding that the area of the lake from which Toledo draws its drinking water as well as miles of shoreline and other areas be deemed impaired.

A determination – which the groups say is required within 30 days of submission by a state under the federal Clean Water Act – would force state, local and federal agencies to develop a plan to address water quality in the area. The state of Ohio submitted its recommendation six months ago.

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Michigan has already submitted and had approved by the EPA its recommendation, which designated all of Lake Erie in its boundaries impaired. The environmental groups want to force Ohio – which made a more limited recommendation – to do the same but need EPA to act first.

The lawsuit comes at a time when the Trump administration is being criticized for wanting to eliminate the $300 million set aside each year for Great Lakes restoration projects and new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said states should have a larger role to play in setting standards.

The EPA did not immediately return a request for comment to the Free Press. In 2014, a massive algae bloom in the Toledo area shut down drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people in southeastern Michigan and northwestern Ohio. The following year, another bloom in the lake covered some 300 square miles of open water.

Pollution from water runoff and agricultural wastes are often blamed for feeding the toxic algae, though business leaders and farming groups have argued that the causes are complicated and any solution requires more than just new government regulations which could hurt them.

In a news release announcing the request for declaratory judgement, the groups said that Michigan “will not be able to restore Lake Erie” on its own since it only has jurisdiction over a small piece of the lake. “Both states must take strong action to reduce harmful algal blooms,” the release said.

“We hope the lawsuit is a catalyst for the EPA to fulfill its responsibility under the Clean Water Act so that state and federal public officials can start putting solutions in place to curb harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie that are harming our drinking water, jobs, and way of life,” said Mike Shriberg, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation, which was one of the groups suing.

“It’s time to use them to clean up Lake Erie,” added Alliance for the Great Lakes President and CEO Joel Brammeier. “We can solve this problem but it’s going to take action. State and federal leaders have said the right things, and now they have to follow through.”

The groups suing include the National Wildlife Foundation, the Alliance for the Great Lakes, the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association, the Lake Erie Foundation, Michigan United Conservation Clubs and the Ohio Environmental Council.

Contact Todd Spangler at 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.