Michigan’s fight against Lake Erie pollution didn’t work. What happens next?

By Emilio Perez Ibarguen, Capital News Service

LANSING – Michigan and its neighbors have missed a 2025 deadline to curb the farm pollution that feeds toxic algal blooms in western Lake Erie, despite 10 years of work and millions of dollars spent on the effort.

Now, state officials are revamping their strategy. But they’re not setting a new deadline for now.

“Seeing how we’re implementing these newer approaches is an important step before updating some of the timelines,” said Tim Boring, the director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He added that any future deadline should be “realistic and achievable.”

The state’s strategy irks environmentalists who have long criticized Great Lakes governments for refusing to regulate farm pollution while instead leaning on voluntary programs that aren’t working.

“These were commitments made by the state of Ohio, by the state of Michigan, by the United States. And there hasn’t been any kind of honest reckoning with why they failed and why it’s continuing to happen,” said Rob Michaels, a senior attorney at the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center.

As part of a 2015 agreement, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario gave themselves 10 years to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering Lake Erie by 40% compared to 2008 levels. It had been clear for several years that they weren’t going to meet that deadline. Now, it’s official.

Between 2018 and 2023, Southeast Michigan’s River Raisin and Upper Maumee River watersheds — where so-called “non-point” sources like farm runoff account for about 95% of the total phosphorus loads —met the 40% reduction goal only once, in 2021. That year was notable for its low rainfall, which limited opportunities for fertilizer to be carried into bodies of water.

Michigan officials say they need at least three more years to get the job done.

Most pollution driving Lake Erie’s algae blooms comes from farm fields and feedlots in Ohio, where the biggest share of landmass drains into western Lake Erie. Ohio’s lack of progress on farm pollution is the key sticking point in a lawsuit by environmental groups who contend the state’s pollution reduction plans are designed to fail.

Still, Michigan plays a significant role in the lake’s pollution problems.

And Boring said that although the state has reduced phosphorus pollution from wastewater treatment plants and factories, it has struggled to curtail the phosphorus-rich fertilizer that pours into the lake from farms and feedlots.

Worsening rainfall over the past decade, Boring said, “continues to be a real challenge” and could help explain why the state’s reduction efforts fell short.

Others blame the missed deadline on regional governments’ refusal to force farmers to curb fertilizer pollution.

States like Michigan have long relied on a voluntary system in which farmers are paid or otherwise encouraged to adopt practices that can reduce pollution. But environmentalists, elected officials and water treatment plant operators criticize that system as an ineffective waste of money.

“Until actual regulations are changed and enforceable, I don’t know how much tangible change you’re going to see,” said Brian Loudenslager, the operator of record for the Toledo water treatment plant.

A 2020 study found that chemical fertilizers and manure contributed nearly 53% of the phosphorus entering Lake Erie through the Maumee watershed during peak season for the algal bloom, from March to July. Another 40% seeped out of the soil, where fertilizer use has caused phosphorus to build up over decades.

Shoreline communities are left to endure the consequences of pollution they didn’t cause. The unsightly, putrid, health-threatening toxic algae blooms are hundreds of miles wide every year. They depress property values, repel tourists and force lakeshore communities to spend more on drinking water treatment.

While state officials refuse to set a hard and fast deadline, they say that devoting more money to the problem will help the state achieve its 40% phosphorus reduction target by 2028.

According to an updated action plan released in May, the state will spend more than $4.8 million for expanded water quality monitoring in the Western Lake Erie Basin, $4 million to study the effects of soil health conservation practices and $12 million to pay farmers to reduce phosphorus pollution over the next three to seven years.

The Department of Agriculture & Rural Development, in collaboration with Michigan State University, will operate a $12 million, seven-year program that pays farmers to adopt conservation practices that improve water quality. That might mean planting cover crops during the winter, leaving fields untilled and planting grasses or other greenery at the edge of farm fields to reduce runoff.

The program will also connect farmers with companies that promote sustainably grown crops, in hopes of proving that environmentally-conscious farming can still be profitable.

The program appears to be an evolution of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, which assists farmers in adopting environmentally friendly practices. About 6% of the farmland in the Western Lake Erie Basin, totaling 59,154 acres, is enrolled in the program, according to the department.

In 2023, Boring told Bridge Michigan that regional governments’ old approach, which prioritized voluntary adoption but often lacked the funding to cause widespread change, was not working. Regardless, the state is keeping the program and aiming to expand participation.

Other efforts will focus on paying farmers to use less fertilizer, restoring wetlands to absorb polluted runoff and continuing to reduce pollution from factories and other so-called “point sources.”

“We’re confident that some of these new approaches will get us closer to those targets we all know are so important,” Boring said.

Environmentalists don’t sound so optimistic.

They argue that progress on phosphorus reductions will remain slow unless governments force farms and feedlots to cut back on pollution, rather than simply encouraging it.

Boring pushed back on blanket mandates, noting that soil conditions and environmental footprints vary widely from farm to farm.

Plenty of acres of Michigan farmland don’t contribute significantly to phosphorus pollution, he added.

The farm lobby has also routinely sued state regulators when they’ve attempted to better regulate pollution. Officials with the Michigan Farm Bureau contend that regulations are unnecessary.

“Every farm is different, so many practices need to be different to be most effective,” said Laura Campbell, a senior conservation and regulatory relations specialist for the group.

Emilio Perez Ibarguen has an environmental reporting internship under the MSU Knight Center for Environmental Journalism’s diversity reporting partnership with the Mott News Collaborative and in cooperation with Capital News Service. This story was produced for Bridge Michigan.