State officials in Michigan drafted a plan that relies on voluntary action by farmers to reduce phosphorus runoff from fields that eventually flows into Lake Erie, where nutrient pollution feeds algal blooms in the western end of the lake, reports MLive Media Group. Critics, including the nonprofit Michigan Environmental Council, were concerned such programs will not be enough. “Relying on voluntary actions alone is not going to get us where we need to be,” the group said.
However, the Michigan Farm Bureau said voluntary steps by producers have helped curb the amount of phosphorus entering the lake from the River Raison, pointing to programs like the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assistance Fund, which “incentivizes farms to install environmentally friendly features like soil buffer strips, windbreak trees, and subsurface tile drain filters,” said MLive. The Farm Bureau was pleased the draft plan does not recommend new regulation of agriculture.
Farms are considered the leading source of nutrient runoff, although sewage plants and homeowner septic systems also are sources of phosphorus, which is used as a fertilizer but also present in soils. “This summer, federal scientists project the bloom to be on par with the one in 2014, when algal toxins poisoned the Toledo drinking water supply for several days,” said MLive.