Good Luck With Lake Erie's Toxic Bacteria Blooms - Ohio Budget Drastically Cuts Funding Aimed At Cyanobacteria Control

Cuts to a major water-quality program in Ohio’s biennial budget will likely weaken efforts to control the spread of toxic blue-green algae in Lake Erie. The program in question, H2Ohio, has invested millions of dollars in improving water quality throughout the state. Much of that money has gone toward cutting off the supply of nutrients to the aforementioned algae, also known as cyanobacteria, which bloom in massive quantities every summer. The new state budget, which Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed into law on July 1, drastically cuts funding for those efforts.

Large blooms of cyanobacteria cause problems for pretty much everything that isn’t algae. They block sunlight and create aquatic “dead zones” where there isn’t enough dissolved oxygen for other organisms to survive. They also release toxins that pose significant health risks to humans, especially to people with pre-existing conditions.

David Kennedy, a professor of medicine at the University of Toledo, described a case of a 7-year-old girl with asthma who was exposed to cyanobacteria while swimming in Maumee Bay. “Her asthma was exacerbated to the point where she needed to be intubated and had a very long, complicated stay in our medical center,” Kennedy said. The girl did eventually recover.

EDIT

Wetland management, which falls under the purview of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, plays an equally important role. When water passes through a wetland, the plants there act as natural filters, absorbing some of the nutrients before they reach a larger river or lake. Under the new budget, the Department of Agriculture’s yearly H2Ohio budget is going from $60.8 million to $53.6 million. The Department of Natural Resources is getting hit even harder: Its H2Ohio budget is dropping from $46.6 million to $21.2 million. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency also gets H2Ohio dollars, mostly to protect drinking water; its budget is falling from $27.5 million to just $7.5 million.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20072025/lake-erie-toxic-algae-control-cuts/