FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The federal lawsuit in Toledo over the state of Ohio’s eventual cleanup strategy for Lake Erie speaks to a nationwide breakdown among regulators to control algae-forming farm runoff, according to a former U.S. Department of Justice environmental crimes chief and a former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regional director.
The failures of government agencies to get tough with big agriculture and others have resulted in a massive public health threat nationally as algal blooms continue to grow, said David Uhlmann, now the director of the University of Michigan Law School’s environmental law and policy program, and Judith Enck, a Bennington College visiting professor and founder of Beyond Plastics.
“The Great Lakes [have] 20 percent of the world's fresh surface water and we're wiping it out. We're wiping it out because we won't regulate agriculture,” Mr. Uhlmann said. He served as the Justice Department’s environmental crimes chief for years before returning to the private sector for a job at U-M.
He described nonpoint source pollution — commonly known as runoff — as one of the 21st century’s biggest environmental issues behind climate change.
“Clean water throughout the United States is vulnerable,” Mr. Uhlmann said.
Ms. Enck said the political influence of state and national farm bureaus is as strong in opposing mandatory runoff controls as the NRA’s is in the gun-control debate.
“I think Democratic and Republican administrations both have failed. A lot of that is because of the constraints of the farm bureau. They're like the NRA to the EPA,” Ms. Enck said, adding that the farm bureau “knows the drill” of how to court the most influential politicians when it senses a need to stop regulations on the horizon.
The two made their comments while on a four-member panel during a breakout session of the national Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Fort Collins, Colo., which ended Sunday.
Ty Higgins, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation spokesman, said farmers are much more regulated than the public realizes.
“The notion that agriculture isn't regulated is simply not true. Farmers have a long list of federal and state rules to follow when it comes to nutrient management. The heaviest regulations come from the U.S. Clean Water Act, which enforces a stringent zero-discharge rule on pollutants for livestock farms of all sizes,” Mr. Higgins said. “Additionally, state lawmakers passed two major pieces of legislation that put new restrictions on who can apply nutrients and when they can be applied, which Ohio Farm Bureau supported.”
He said that working with state legislators “has resulted in big steps in water quality efforts including the H2Ohio program, offering $172 million over the next two years to water quality.”
“Now, new initiatives between Ohio's agriculture organizations and environmental and academia groups will promote further efforts needed for solutions to this complex issue,” Mr. Higgins said.
Neither Mr. Uhlmann nor Ms. Enck addressed specifics of a lawsuit the Environmental Law & Policy Center has filed against the U.S. EPA, one in which the Chicago-based group of environmental lawyers accuses the agency of violating the federal Clean Water Act by not forcing Ohio to create what’s known as a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, program to address western Lake Erie algae. The Toledo-based Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie and the Lucas County board of commissioners are plaintiffs, with the cities of Toledo and Oregon recognized by the court as interested parties.
But both said it is sad how the U.S. EPA repeatedly has been sued over the years to uphold laws it is supposed to enforce.
First Published October 14, 2019, 12:00 p.m.