Since 2010, the U.S. has seen at least 300 toxic algae blooms in its lakes and ponds, and Lake Erie has experienced some of the worst blooms ever observed. In 2014, a bloom poisoned the water supply for Toledo, OH, affecting 400,000 people.
Last year, head of the Trump Environmental Pollution Agency Pruitt refused to declare Lake Erie "impaired" under the Clean Water Act. According to U.S. News, the TEPA said they agreed with state regulators who said they were making progress, and recognized the efforts to reduce pollution feeding the algae.
In April 2017, Ohio EPA Administrator Craig Butler recognized that voluntary farming incentives, such as cutting phosphorus pollution by 40% from 2008 levels by 2025 were not working.
A year later, nothing has changed but once hypothesized, now proven, the growth in algae blooms are related to global warming, and they are only to get worse. In March, a group of scientists from the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Sea Grant and the EPA released a study that concluded increased greenhouse gas emissions are directly responsible for the increase in blooms. And as the algae blooms decay, they release more greenhouse gases, a vicious circle.
Furthermore, The Donald, who carried Ohio in the 2016 election, has proposed budget cuts that include cutting funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The program funds quality oversight, runoff mitigation and habitat preservation, among many other activities.
GOP Governor John Kasich recently declared "only parts" of Lake Erie as impaired, because the middle of the lake, for example, is not impaired.
Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz is not happy. He claims that the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation holes too much influence on Ohio lawmakers, and Toledoans are paying the price.
Obviously, Pruitt is much too busy with this and that to care about Ohio.
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2017/06/21/government-report-says-great-lakes-in-bad-condition-lake-erie-worst-of-the-bunch
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/04/17/new-stricer-regulations-coming-for-ohio-farmers-as-kasich-declares-lake-erie-officially-impaired
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2018/05/16/scientists-say-lake-erie-toxic-algae-blooms-could-be-part-of-climate-change-loop
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/ohio/articles/2017-05-23/epa-rejects-declaring-lake-eries-waters-in-ohio-impaired
https://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2017/05/26/the-lake-erie-reckoning-is-here-federal-government-and-ohio-give-cold-shoulder-to-regional-water-supply
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