From US EPA News
Govermment officials from the U.S. and Canada announced an agreement to reduce algae-growing phosphorus entering Lake Erie by 40 percent in the coming years. The 40 percent reduction targets are based on loading levels from 2008, which is seen as one of the more typical years for agricultural runoff over the past decade. Last year was heavy because of record rain and 2012 was minimal because of a drought.
The two governments agreed to have their plans in place for meeting those goals by February, 2018. Their decision was based on recommendations from more than three dozen experts.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency news release said the two countries stuck to their schedule of developing binational phosphorus-reduction targets for Lake Erie under the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
The United States and Canada first signed that accord in 1972 to work closer at protecting the Great Lakes in general, then made a commitment to jointly address Lake Erie algae in 2012. That agreement came the year after the 2011 bloom, which had been the lake’s record in modern history until it was surpassed by last summer’s blanket of slime.
Though 2015 set a new record for algae biomass, the hefty bloom wasn’t as toxic as some previous ones.
“The first step in our urgent work together to protect Lake Erie from toxic algae, harmful algal blooms, and other effects of nutrient runoff, is to establish these important phosphorus limits,” U.S. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said.
Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, said her country will “strengthen our resolve” to work with Americans on protecting Lake Erie through the new target goals.
The Chicago-based Council of Great Lakes Governors made a similar pledge last June, amplifying calls by the Ohio Phosphorus Task Force, the U.S.-Canada International Joint Commission, and members of the scientific community.