Sierra Club, Ohio Interfaith Power and Light, and Westminster Presbyterian Church teamed up to promote energy efficiency!

Through energy efficient lighting, control systems, and cooling equipment, Westminster Presbyterian Church has saved $50,000 in the last 5 years on their energy bills!  If this beautiful, historic church in Dayton can do it, so can all Ohio homes, churches, and businesses too!  To read the article or see the video click here.

Every summer, Lake County General Health District sprays toxic chemicals for mosquito control throughout the county. While there is little benefit from spraying, there are high public health, economic, and ecological cost.  Sierra Club and local advocates are working together to explore non-chemical alternatives to mosquito spraying.

The chemicals used for spraying, like permethrin, can cause skin irritation, eye damage, respiratory irritation, and nervous system disorder in humans. To make it worse, these chemicals are non-selective poisons that can accumulate in the ecosystem which also kill beneficial insects and fish.

One of the main reasons the Lake County General Health District justifies spraying of toxic chemicals is to control the spread of West Nile Virus. However,  according to the Ohio Department of Health website (http://www.odh.ohio.gov/casemaps/wnv/wnv10/index.html), since the first West Nile Virus infected Blue Jay was found in 2001, there have only been 2 human cases in Lake County. Such statistics show that annual spraying did not initially prevent West Nile from entering Lake County, nor has West Nile  posed a significant threat to public health.

There are many non-chemical alternatives to control the mosquito population. The Lake County General Health District  has been encouraging people to introduce gambusia fish into their ponds. Yet much more can be done.  It is time that Lake County General health District explore other sustainable solutions such as dragonflies, brown bats, and rain gardens.  The Lake County General Health District should weigh the cost and benefits of the spraying program. They should encourage the citizens to use green infrastructures instead of spending money on toxic chemicals.

Urge your county officials to explore alternative ways to control mosquitos and stop spraying hazardous chemicals into our environment.

Scenic River Photo by Cyane Gresham

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What’s new with the clean water campaign?

Well we have been busy here along the streamside. The Aveda Institute Columbus has been a major supporter of the Sierra Club’s Clean Water Campaign. In April 2010, Aveda expanded our partnership across the State, increasing the number of communities involved in water quality issues and raised close to $65,000 for clean water.

 A big thank you goes to Aveda! While the goals of the Clean Water campaign are shared across the State, monies raised by the Columbus Institute will remain local and support our efforts to protect and enhance the quality of the Olentangy and Scioto watersheds.

Awareness

We continue to educate people about water quality issues and ways that they can get involved and make a difference. In April 2010 we developed a new interactive tabling display and have gone to water- related events in April, June, and July. Events like Three Creeks fest, Earth Day and ComFest have been a great opportunities to engage the public about water issues. In July and August the Sierra Club and local watershed organizations designed and implemented a series of 6 workshops around backyard conservation techniques. The backyard conservation series promotes healthy yards and healthy streams by teaching participants about watersheds, native plants, organic lawn care/gardening, rain gardens, rain barrels and composting.

Action

The Clean Water Campaign is taking action to protect the Olentangy and Scioto watersheds through coordinating outing events. In partnership with Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed (FLOW) and the Ohio State University Olentangy Research Park, Sierra Club has coordinated 3 river clean ups in April, June and July. We have had over 100 people volunteer at these cleanups to remove trash, clear invasive species, plant wetland plants and test water quality.

Advocacy

The Clean Water Campaign advocates not just for responsible regulations, but also for sustainable solutions. In June and July we met with the Columbus Department of Public Utilities, the City of Columbus Environmental Steward and the Ohio EPA.

We are asking the City of Columbus to create a dedicated source of funding for green infrastructure and have requested a review of green infrastructure expenditures. The Department of Public Utilities has not been forthright with green infrastructure expenditures and the payment of overflow fines. The Clean Water Campaign raised public awareness about overflows through articles and letters in the Columbus Dispatch. We also submitted comments to the Ohio EPA on the 2.5 million dollar OSIS Augmentation Relief Sewer that will run underneath downtown and south Columbus. Three organizations (and thanks to our action alert, 70 individuals) joined us in submitting comments asking for further review and a public hearing.

Unfortunately, the Ohio EPA is moving forward with this project without further review. Overall, the Clean Water Campaign has continued to protect our water at the source and engage people around water issues. A special Thanks to all of the members who have helped out over the past months, way to go! If you would like to come to a water-related event or learn more about the Clean Water Campaign please do not hesitate to contact your local water coordinator Matt Trokan at 614-461-0734×311 or matt.trokan@sierraclub.org.

See you by the streamside.

Matt

Every two years, states are required to submit a list of Impaired Waters to the US EPA for approval.  Impaired waters are those waters that are not meeting state water quality standards as defined by the Clean Water Act. On June 14, 2010 the Ohio EPA published their Final Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report, which was approved by the US EPA. Take Action by email Director Korleski.

Problematically, the Ohio EPA Report did not include some major river systems in the 2010 Report, the stated reason being that these rivers had not been tested for a number of years.  Major waterways left off the list included the Maumee and Little Miami Rivers.  Lake Erie and the Ohio River were not included because they are shared with other states.  Part of the challenge is that the US EPA assigns responsibility for evaluating and reporting Impaired Waters on a state-by-state basis, rather than on a watershed basis. By not including Ohio’s most imperiled river, the Maumee, and its serious effect on the Maumee Bay in Lake Erie, the OEPA was able to reach its goal for 2010 and maintain that close to 80% of Ohio’s water ways are meeting aquatic wildlife standards. And meeting aquatic life standards does not address the most critical water criterion, public drinking water supplies.

The Sierra Club sent comments to Ohio EPA on their Report, which outlined the problems mentioned here.  Commenting was difficult because 2010 Report failed to provide an understandable format.  The Ohio EPA has many data points to determine Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) or the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards.  The data is broken down into four “uses”—human health, recreation, aquatic life and drinking water (recently added).  The data and models are complex and mathematically determined. While some improvements from 2008 to 2010 appear to have been made, TMDL tests have not been conducted on many of the major impaired watersheds throughout the State.  Lake Erie and the Maumee River have never had TMDL testing and tests are not scheduled for years – if they ever happen.

Listed below are comments broken down by use category:

Drinking Water:  The Report gives no focus or priority to surface waters that provide drinking water as only 39% of public water sources were evaluated in the 2010 Report.  Surface drinking water sources should be assessed prior to waters that have no public drinking water intakes; and the highest priority should be given to the waters that provide the most drinking water based on population. We realize public drinking water use was only added in 2008 and encourage future actions to address the lack of information.

Human Health:  The Report says that between 66-75% of fish in the 8 major hydrological units are unsafe for consumption. OEPA states that PCB contamination in fish is the number one problem, followed by mercury.  Every body of water in Ohio is under a mercury advisory for eating fish.

Recreation:  The Report only tested 15 of the 38 major rivers for recreational use Lake Erie was not evaluated. Only 2 major rivers in the entire state (Paint Creek and Walhonding River) meet the swimmable standards of the Clean Water Act. The Report concluded that only 44% of sites where people are most likely to swim are meeting the recreational use standard.

Aquatic Life:  In the early 1990’s, the OEPA established a goal of attaining the designated aquatic life use in 80% of Ohio’s streams and rivers by 2010.  In the 2010 Report roughly 70% of the watersheds in Ohio were tested and only 60% were designated as supporting aquatic life, falling far short of the “80 in 2010” goal.  Rivers that were not tested in the last 10 years were deleted from the last Ohio EPA assessment.  The Maumee River, one of the largest and most degraded drainages in the State, is not scheduled for review until 2019!

Ohio EPA claims that between 80-93% of Ohio’s waters are no longer impaired for aquatic life, but this category is about fish quantities and overall evaluation of aquatic life. The Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources (ODNR) together with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission states that Lake Erie walleye populations have declined from over 80 million about five years ago to around 20 million now.  Likewise, there are reductions in forage fish, bass, and other species.  The 2010 Report does not reflect the declining fish numbers.

Ohio Needs Nutrient Discharge Limits

The Sierra Club is urging Ohio EPA to adopt nutrient standards as soon as possible.  Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizers, manure and wastewater treatment plants are washed into our streams during heavy storms with large volumes of precipitation. These are classified as pollutants because they supply nutrients to aquatic algae, which create zones of low oxygen or “dead zones”. The Ohio River and the Western Basin of Lake Erie are experiencing problems with increasing nutrients and algal blooms. Western Lake Erie has the second-worst dead zone in the nation, after the Mississippi/Gulf of Mexico region, and action is urgently needed.

If Ohio fails to adopt nutrient standards, Lake Erie will end up like Grand Lake St. Mary’s which is Ohio’s largest inland lake and is sick with massive algal blooms.  Beaches at Grand Lake St. Mary’s are posted with Do Not Swim signs because of algae and bacteria.  For years Ohio EPA has known about the problems there and has failed to take action. Lake Erie is experiencing these same problems, with algal and sediment pollution causing serious consequences to fishing and tourism and Ohio’s economy.

Ohio can and must impose nutrient standards.  The standards must be applied to factory farms. Ohio EPA acknowledges that manure runoff contributes to algal blooms at Grand Lake St. Mary’s.  Since the 1990s Ohio’s nutrient pollution has been increasing.  OEPA’s report failed to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act by failing to show the increasing nutrient problems in the Western Lake Erie and Ohio River watersheds and declining fish populations.

Lake Erie is shared with 4 US states and Ontario, and the Ohio River is shared with 8 states.  Continuing the status quo at the national, state and local levels and relying upon our current practices and control strategies will not support a positive public health and environmental outcome.

Take Action!  Lake Erie is not Dead Again yet, and there is still time to take action. The Sierra Club is distributing post cards to fill out and send to OEPA Director Korleski but you can write him directly at P.O. Box 1049, Columbus OH 43216 or Click Here Now to write the director electronically and tell him that for the sake of our lakes and rivers Ohio needs nutrient discharge limits. Thank you for taking action to help protect Lake Erie.

Algae in Lake Erie

Many of us live along or have visited the shores of Lake Erie. Lake Erie is not just a state treasure but is also of international importance as the 11th largest lake in the world. The Great Lakes are the world’s largest freshwater eco-system and while Erie only has 2% of the water it contains 50% of all the fish in the Great Lakes.

Erie not only provides us with fish to eat and a place to recreate but also provides 11 million people with drinking water.

While Lake Erie is the most developed, dredged and populated of the Great Lakes water quality had improved steadily with the passing of the Clean Water Act in the 1970’s. Concern for the health of the Lake was reignited at the turn of the century as harmful algae blooms have increased due to more: Combined Animal Feeding Operation manure applications. Open lake disposal of sediments, field tiles, and lawns fertilized. Changing agricultural practices are also contributing to more nutrient runoff. Since 2003, the algal blooms have gotten bigger summer after summer with the most massive algal blooms ever in 2009. Algal blooms reduce aquatic production, increase water treatment costs, and increase the dead zones (oxygen depleted areas in Lake Erie). Ohio is not checking public beaches for algae and warning poster.

In 2007, Director Korlieski of the Ohio EPA convened the Ohio Lake Erie Phosphorous Task Force to examine sources of phosphorous and their potential to contribute to algae blooms. On May 6th 2010 the OEPA led team of federal, state and local officials along with farm interest groups, university researchers and fertilizer manufacturers released their final report.

Algae bloom in Lake Erie

The report list multiple sources of phosphorous as contributing to algae blooms, however the most significant is runoff from agricultural nutrient applications such as commercial fertilizers and livestock manure because these sources have high concentrations of soluble or dissolved phosphorous. It is not surprising that agriculture is the prime source for phosphorous loading because 60-80% of land use in Northwest Ohio, where the algae blooms are greatest, is agricultural. The Task Force Estimates that inorganic fertilizers contribute 66% and animal manure contributes 27% of agricultural fertilizers being applied in the Lake Erie watershed. The report did not address or assess nutrient loads from the Detroit River which supplies over 90% of the water to Lake Erie. Studies suggest that the Detroit River supplies a little less than half of the phosphorus to Lake Erie. Nor does the report address the Detroit Wastewater plant which is the largest wastewater plant in North America which had 30 billion gallons of sewage overflows going into Lake Erie in 2009.

While the report recommends some Ohio based common sense “best practices” to curtail nutrient runoff such as; not applying unnecessary amounts of fertilizers, applying fertilizers when crops are growing, not to spread manure when the ground is frozen, and employing filter areas and wetlands to reduce runoff, what Lake Erie really needs is for Ohio to adopt nutrient standards (not narrative standards that have no enforcement ability). USEPA is proposing nutrient standards in Florida watersheds. Environmental groups including the Sierra Club filed suit in Florida and won based on the Clean Water Act. The court requires Florida to establish nutrient standards which are now proposed by USEPA. The leading opponents to the Florida standards are the Farm Bureau and Scotts Fertilizer based in Ohio. Nutrient standards like the ones proposed in Florida and being developed in Chesapeake Bay can save Lake Erie from being pegged Dead Again. The water quality is as bad as or worse now than it was in 1972 when the Clean Water Act was introduced. If Ohio fails to adopt nutrient standards, Lake Erie will continue to become more green and sicker.

Lake Erie is not Dead Again yet, and there is still time to take action. The Sierra Club is distributing post cards to fill out and send to OEPA Director Korleski but you can write him directly at P.O. Box 1049, Columbus OH 43216 or Click Here Now to write the director electronically and tell him that for the sake of our lakes and rivers Ohio needs nutrient discharge limits. Thank you for taking action to help protect Lake Erie.