agricultural runoff

The algae bloom that shut down Toledo's drinking-water supply for two days this summer has put the spotlight on agricultural runoff, although farmland is not the only source of the pollutants that cause the explosive growth of the cyanobacteria, says...

The International Joint Commission, the U.S.-Canada group that oversees the Great Lakes, will spend the next few months studying the impact of algae blooms in Lake Erie before issuing a new report on the lake in the spring, says the Associated Press.

During the summer, green slime, also known as blue-green algae, disrupted the water supply for Toledo. Nutrient runoff from farms, especially phosphorus fertilizer, gets part of the blame for feeding the algae blooms.

Groups representing soybean, corn and hog farmers in Iowa formed an alliance to encourage farmers in the Hawkeye state to voluntarily reduce nutrient runoff, said DTN.

Farm leaders in Ohio say producers have worked for years to reduce their use of fertilizer and to reduce runoff through using no-till cultivation and planting filter strips near waterways, says AgWeb.

The largest U.S. farm group strongly criticized a proposed clean water rule as "an unlawful expansion of federal regulation to cover routine farming and ranching practices as well as other common private land uses, such as building homes."