Update to Lake Erie Phosphorus Reduction Plan

State officials have announced the release of an update to the Ohio Domestic Action Plan aimed at reducing phosphorus in Lake Erie under the bi-national Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. It’s the first such iteration of the plan since Gov. DeWine’s H2Ohio program was enacted. The plan focuses on four aspects:

• Establishing science-based priorities for agricultural management practices and state programs to support H2Ohio efforts to encourage farmers to implement science-based best practices;
• The importance of wetland restoration and outlining ODNR efforts to create, restore, and enhance wetlands for nutrient reduction as part of H2Ohio;
• Updated actions for communities, including H2Ohio support for home sewage treatment system remediation;
• Integrating the role of watershed planning at the local level for siting projects to reduce nutrients efficiently, including a distribution of the load reduction throughout the Maumee River watershed based on the Ohio EPA Nutrient Mass Balance method.

Previous versions of the plan required Ohio EPA to pursue legislation that would require all treatment works discharging wastewater containing phosphorus to achieve at least a monthly average effluent concentration of 1 mg/L phosphorus. The OMA and its nutrient water working group has worked tirelessly with Ohio EPA and others to ensure manufacturing is not disproportionately harmed by any new regulations on nutrients. Public comments can be emailed by March 2, 2020. 1/30/2020