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Submitted by brian on Fri, 08/06/2010 - 2:45pm
newsdate:
Fri, 08/06/2010
From WHIO-TV (click link to see video):
New regulations are on the way for farmers who live and work fields around Grand Lake St. Marys. However, it turns out that many farmers are already doing their part to clean up the lake.
The land that feeds into Grand Lake St. Marys is some of the richest farm land in the entire state of Ohio. It is full of small family farmers, trying to make a living in a changing world, but also doing their part to save a state treasure in their back yards.
The farming community is trying to do what is right. Given enough time then GLSM will be clean enough to boat and swim and fish again.
The problem is "enough time" for farmers to fix it is too long to keep local businesses from going under. Sad, but true. Moreover, for every 1 farmer doing the right thing with CNMPs, filter strips etc, there are 3 more who haven't been. Only now that there's a huge mess and government restrictions are imminent do people care about proper CNMPs.
The other Channel 7 video features Rep. Zehringer calling for dredging. Though dredging some of the main creek inlets could help some of the internal loading issues, dredging the entire lake is excessively cost prohibitive. And besides, why bother taking the muck out if it's just going to be replaced with more muck? The excessive phosphate inputs (currently over 10x what they should be, ~70+% from ag) must be stopped. If I held the purse strings, I'd say "I'll give you money to dredge when the 100 largest farms in the watershed (by area and # of animals) are complying with CNMPs."
James is underestimating the agricultural phosphorus input to the Lake, a COE study indicates it is 85% of the total coming in the Lake. Most of the agricultural input would be stopped immediately if two simple rules were applied, (1) no manure application to ground between November 15 and April 1, and (2) no manure or fertilizer application phosphorus to fields that will not need it to support crops in the next growing season.
Dredging is just one of the tools that needs to be applied to save the Lake and the over 2000 jobs it supports. It can be done more cheaply than the State has indicated, and should begin as soon as possible.