As the Toledo area approaches the anniversary of last August’s water crisis, it’s worth remembering that this region has confronted — and overcome — extreme pollution of Lake Erie before. A new program by Lucas County and the National Wildlife Federation invokes the spirit of a water cleanup effort that goes back nearly a half-century. Let’s hope this initiative is at least as successful.
In the 1960s and before, factories along Toledo’s shoreline routinely dumped industrial waste into the Maumee River, fouling the western basin of Lake Erie. At the same time, runoff from farm fertilizer and pesticides raised levels of phosphorus in the watershed, feeding blooms of toxic algae in the lake.
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The resulting lack of oxygen killed huge numbers of fish; their corpses littered lake shorelines. Experts pronounced Lake Erie dead. The Blade published a series of articles on the dreadful state of the western basin and the Maumee River.
In 1966, a group of local visionaries — including Toledo political leader Ned Skeldon, corporate executives Stephen Stranahan and Thomas Anderson, and Blade co-publisher Paul Block, Jr. — formed a nonprofit group, Clear Water Inc., to clean up the Lake Erie watershed. Clear Water’s advocacy, partnerships with other local institutions, and public education campaigns paid off.
The group’s leaders worked with state and federal officials to develop landmark antipollution legislation, including the federal Clean Water Act. They lobbied state officials to improve water management planning, set and enforce standards for drinking water quality, and provide financial aid to local communities to upgrade their sewage treatment plants.
In 1973, Mr. Skeldon fulfilled his pledge to swim across the Maumee River at Walbridge Park, with no adverse effects. Five years later, Clear Water declared victory and went out of business. By the 1980s, Lake Erie’s phosphorus levels had been cut in half, and harmful algae blooms were under control.
Sadly, the victory lap proved premature. Over the past decade, pollution from various sources — mostly from farm runoff but also from wastewater and septic systems — contributed to more and worse algae blooms. This year’s forecast is for larger than normal blooms, sooner.
Last summer, harmful algae created a toxin that poisoned Toledo’s water supply, leaving nearly 500,000 area residents without drinking water for three days. The crisis led to new state legislation and regulation, and improved federal monitoring of water quality in Lake Erie.
The governors of Ohio and Michigan and their counterpart in Ontario have agreed to seek a 40-percent reduction of phosphorus levels in Lake Erie by 2025. Farmers are managing their use of fertilizer and manure more effectively.
But more must be done. This week, Lucas County commissioners and National Wildlife Federation officials announced the launch of Clear Water 2, a campaign of public advocacy, information, and education modeled on the original effort.
The new campaign has three main goals: to protect and manage watersheds in northwest Ohio more efficiently, to advance legal and policy solutions to address algae pollution in Lake Erie, and to assess how the need to battle toxic algae affects water rates for local consumers and businesses, with an eye to promoting regional cooperation on the issue.
Commissioner Tina Skeldon-Wozniak, Ned Skeldon’s daughter, told The Blade’s editorial page that Clear Water 2 will be a “grass-roots” effort that relies on public participation. “People are worried about health concerns” related to the condition of Lake Erie, she said. “We want to bring resources to the problem.”
If Clear Water 2 can clean up Lake Erie as well as its predecessor did — but permanently this time — there won’t be a need for Clear Water 3.
First Published July 9, 2015, 4:00 a.m.