Area lawmakers seek state money to help water crisis

Staff Sgt. Josh Reiss, of the 200th Red Horse Engineers, directs a pallet of water to a storing area in the parking lot of Woodward High School to be distributed this past Sunday during the 'do not drink' water advisory.

State Democratic lawmakers today urged Gov. John Kasich to get money released from Ohio‘‍s rainy day fund to help Toledo and other Lake Erie shoreline communities pull through the 2014 algae-induced water crisis.

To do so, the governor first would need to convene an emergency session of the Ohio General Assembly for a vote.

State representatives Chris Redfern (D. Catawba Island), Teresa Fedor (D. Toledo), Michael Ashford (D. Toledo), and Michael Sheehy (D., Oregon) held a news conference early today at the University of Toledo Lake Erie Research Center to discuss Toledo‘‍s water crisis and the Lake Erie algal bloom.

Ms. Fedor is also asking the governor to immediately declare the Maumee River region a distressed watershed.

That would allow the state to regulate the storage of animal manure and would require commercial business and agricultural business to develop plans on how they dump nutrients and chemicals into the watershed.

The Maumee River is the largest Lake Erie tributary.

“We don’‍t need to study this issue further. We have the solution,” Ms. Fedor said. “ What we need now is a response.”