LIMA — After the 2014 toxic algal bloom crisis on Lake Erie, which forced more than 400,000 people in the Toledo area to avoid drinking tap water for two days, a concerted effort was made to address the issue of nutrient runoff into the lake. The legislative part of that effort saw significant contributions from U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green.
During a visit to The Lima News on Monday, Latta reminisced about this past year and the strides that were made in preventing future algal outbreaks.
“We needed to look at the major issue we had out there with the lake and water quality, so I introduced the Drinking Water Protection Act, which is now signed into law, which mandated the federal [Environmental Protection Agency] on the water side to come up with a grand plan on how we can address this,” he said. “What are the algal toxins that we have? How are we going to combat those? How will we come up with the health advisories and work with the local governments?”
Along with trying to address the issue legislatively, Latta said there have been several local efforts in his district to keep nutrients in the fields and not running into waterways and contributing to algal growth, such as using GPS technology and soil sampling to determine a field’s nutrient content and fertilize accordingly.
“There has been great cooperation,” Latta said. “Everyone’s been trying to work together to control what’s going into the streams and rivers so we can have better water quality.”
Algal blooms are not the only issue facing the region’s waterways, however. The ecosystem of area lakes and rivers is also at risk from invasive species, such as the various Asian carp species that have invaded waterways in the southern United States and have been working their way north toward the Great Lakes.
“They don’t eat the other fish, but they eat everything the other fish eat,” Latta said. “Plus they’re dangerous. They jump out of the water when boats come through and they’ve broken windshields and hit people. They’ve found them in Indiana very close to the Maumee River.”
Latta said there have been electric fences placed along Lake Michigan in Illinois in an effort to block these invasive species from entering the lake. While he may approve of seeing similar efforts around Lake Erie, he does not know if this would be a final solution.
“There are no guarantees,” he said.
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