Legal wrangling over Lake Erie TMDL continues

In a move designed to protect Ohio farmers from non-science-based environmental restrictions, a group of 11 agricultural groups from across the state are seeking a legal intervention to a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that was filed by the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC) on May 1, 2024.

The activist group alleges that the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of nutrients such a phosphorous into the Western Lake Erie Basin (known as the Maumee Watershed Nutrient TMDL) is insufficient to meet both Ohio and federal water quality standards. At its core, the activist lawsuit pushes for the need for additional non-scientific limits and restrictions in the amount of phosphorus that both livestock and row crop farmers can use and that may, ultimately, enter the Maumee River and the Western Lake Erie Basin.

In light of this action, which is the third time ELPC has sued EPA over the status of western Lake Erie, the agricultural groups are rising to the defense of the EPA, which has also come under fire by Lucas County, Ohio, officials as well. Ohio… Continue reading