Farmers urged to reduce nutrient runoff

By MARK FAHEY

mfahey@recordherald.com

Ohio farm­ers received a let­ter from 20 of Ohio’s largest agri­cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions in Jan­u­ary urg­ing them to take vol­un­tary action to reduce nutri­ent runoff from their farms.

“Agri­cul­ture must begin imme­di­ately to reduce nutri­ent runoff in a man­ner that can be doc­u­mented,” read the let­ter. “If this can’t be accom­plished vol­un­tar­ily, it will be imposed mandatorily.”

Nutri­ent runoff from farms can end up in local lakes and water­ways, caus­ing exces­sive algae growth. In 2011, high rain water lev­els and phos­phate runoff caused algae blooms in the west­ern basin of Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Mary’s in west­ern Ohio, pro­duc­ing tox­ins that can make vis­i­tors sick.

A sim­i­lar explo­sion of algae growth occurred in Deer Creek Lake in Pick­away County in 2010, as well as in other major lakes in the state. The prob­lem was less notice­able last sum­mer due to drought conditions.

“That’s kind of just where it shows up, in the water bod­ies. It doesn’t mean there’s not things grow­ing in the streams too,” said Chet Mur­phy, dis­trict admin­is­tra­tor for the Fayette County Soil and Water Con­ser­va­tion District.

Not only are local bod­ies of water affected, but nutri­ent pol­lu­tion in south­ern Ohio even­tu­ally runs into the Mis­sis­sippi River, con­tribut­ing to a large “dead zone” each sum­mer in the Gulf of Mex­ico. Excess nutri­ents in the Gulf lead to mas­sive plant growth, and the decom­po­si­tion of those plants removes oxy­gen from the water, killing fish and other marine animals.

“It’s really an issue for the entire state of Ohio because the same kinds of things that hap­pen in Grand Lake and Lake Erie are hap­pen­ing in the Gulf of Mex­ico,” said Joe Cor­nely, senior direc­tor of com­mu­ni­ca­tions at the Ohio Farm Bureau.”It’s geo­graph­i­cally fur­ther removed, but it’s the same concept.”

In the let­ter, signed “Ohio’s agri­cul­ture com­mu­nity,” the Ohio Farm Bureau and other agri­cul­tural orga­ni­za­tions encour­aged farm­ers to use the prin­ci­ples of “4R Nutri­ent Stew­ard­ship,” which include using the right fer­til­izer source, at the right rate, at the right time and with the right place­ment, to reduce nutri­ent pol­lu­tion off their properties.

“It’s everybody’s respon­si­bil­ity to pro­tect the envi­ron­ment and farm­ers are included in the Ohio com­mu­nity that shares in that respon­si­bil­ity,” said Cor­nely. “We’re not the only ones, but since we man­age so much of the land base, a siz­able chunk of the job is on our plate.”

Mur­phy said that the Fayette County Soil and Water Con­ser­va­tion Dis­trict is part­ner­ing with the Fayette County Health Depart­ment to test water flow­ing in and out of the county to deter­mine how much the area is adding or sub­tract­ing from nutri­ent loads.

“What we need to do from now on is to find a way to mon­i­tor results,” said Mur­phy. “I would not like to see it go to reg­u­la­tion. We’re a firm believer in vol­un­tary efforts, but at some point that’s up to the pub­lic and leg­isla­tive bod­ies and what they feel needs to happen.”

Mur­phy said that he has seen more and more effort being put into learn­ing good nutri­ent stew­ard­ship, and Cor­nely said that the Farm Bureau has received a gen­er­ally pos­i­tive reac­tion to the call to action.

“I’ve been work­ing with farm­ers for 30-some years and they’re aware that they have a job to do here,” said Cor­nely. “The pur­pose of the let­ter was just to remind folks of that, to drive home a recog­ni­tion that this is not some­thing that any of us can afford to ignore.”

(Mark Fahey is a staff writer for the Record-Herald in Wash­ing­ton Court House.)

Posted by Tina Murdock on Feb 24 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.