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Song written and sung by Pat Dailey


Lake Erie Calendar

October 10 Lake Erie Waterkeeper Monthly Meeting 7 pm Toledo Yacht Club & Virtual -
         By phone 312-626-6799 ID 84775087569 Code 997807
Speakers:           Public Hearing Van Wert Oct. 30
  • Phosphorus and Wetlands Peter Hess PE
  • Schmucker violation update
  • Erie Marsh
  • Source Tracking Saginaw Bay
  • Lake Erie Update
  • USDA NRCS 590
  • Campbells Soup Update
  • Fish Update
  • Other
Triple R Public Meeting Oct. 30 Triple R, 7200 hog operation open house and public meeting on a draft Permit to Install (PTI) offsite lagoon over 4 miles offsite holding 9.6 gallons hog manure for the facility called “Triple R Farms,” which is located at 16786 Rank Road, Van Wert, Ohio 45891 in Van Wert County, Ridge Township in the Auglaize watershed. If the final permit is issued, the PTI would be valid for two years. The open house and public meeting will be held on October 30, 2024, in the EMR Room of the Administration Building located at 1055 S. Washington Street, Van Wert, OH 45891. The open house will begin at 6:30 p.m. The public meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. Text [email protected] if interested in details, attending, commenting

​Lake Erie now

​LAKE ERIE 2024 - Manure runoff case for algae reduction

Michigan states manure problem, Ohio fails to do so, Indiana acknowledges:
  • Michigan's honest approach to reducing phosphorus to Lake Erie  Michigan's Agricultural Director, Borong December 12, 2023 at Michigan's first Lake Erie Conference : "Boring added the government is basically asking farmers to adopt the conservation practices when the ag industry advice to be successful is exactly the opposite way. Put more land into production. Raise more livestock. And livestock manure is a big part of the phosphorus pollution problem. That manure is spread on farm fields as a fertilizer. But more of it is being applied than the crops will take up. Environmentalists want government to restrict how big factory farms can get in the hopes of limiting how much manure is produced. Politically, that’s highly unlikely. Boring said manure itself is not the problem. “The irony with all of this is the fact that we have a manure allocation problem, not a manure quantity problem. We have manure in all the wrong places. If we're serious about building soil health, if we're serious about building biological capacity of soils, manure is a piece of this. The problem is we just are putting too much manure in too few places today.” But it’s expensive to transport manure to other fields farther away and there’s little incentive to consider it.
  • Contrast Ohio's 2023 September Lake Erie Conference that avoided discussing manure and failed to address manure runoff
  • Ohio TMDL submission to USEPA super disappointing.  Fails to set goals for dissolved phosphorus that are needed and fails to address growing CAFO/Mega Farm/Manure issue.  Mean time Ohio is adding more and more livestock and additional land application of untreated manure.  USEPA can accept or reject Ohio TMDL in the next 30-90 days.
  • Environemental Law & Policy Center ELPC Comments
  • Consultant for ELPC Liquid Manure Comments
  • Jeff Reutter Retired OSU Sea Grant Director TMDL Comments
  • Enviro Consultant, Was employed at Ohio EPA & California Air Peter Hess TMDL Comments
  • Toledo Metroplitan Area Council of Governments TMDL Comments
  • Lake Erie Waterkeeper TMDL Comments 
  • Impacts of federal ruling on State of Oklahoma vs Tysson et al that requires Arkansas poultry manure runoff reductions in the Illinois River that pollute Oklahoma Illinois River waters downstream Click here for court ruling A 90 day extension has been granted for Tysson et al to say how poultry manure runoff will be reduced
  • USEPA Federal Court TMDL Consent Agreement
  • Bad News - JBS , the worlds largest beef producer is relocating operations in Texas and Kansas to the Midwest with a recent 8000 cow request in the Maumee Watershed in Indiana with manure hauled to Eden, Ohio and Temeprance, Michigan! 
  • The Maumee/Western Lake Erie Watershed is helped by family farms that use commercial fertilizer and are reducing the amount of phosphorus being applied to the fields - about a 40% reduction)
  • Progress on Erie Marsh protection - Lake Erie's silent gem
  • Thank federal and State of Ohio officials for funding and helping with sturgeon assessment for reestablishment in the Cuyahoga River
  • Thank local officials who are supporting the Lake Erie Executive Order supporting local government's need for phosphorus reductions to reduce costs in water treatment plant operations

​Report problems

  • Report Algae, Illness, Sick Animals, Dead Fish etc.
  • 1-800-282-9378 or (614) 224-0946.
  • If you see discolored water in a ditch, take a picture, note time, date and location(best you can give).  Text/call Sandy at 419-367-1691
  • If a visual take a picture, email information to [email protected] and copy to [email protected]

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