CHATHAM, Ont. — Ontario farmers will be asked to help support bi-national phosphorus reduction targets for the Great Lakes by the fall of 2017, if not sooner.
Phosphorus contributes to water quality issues, especially in Lake Erie, one of the world’s largest, fresh water fisheries and the source of drinking water for millions.
Don McCabe, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, said the provincial government needs to be aware of past contributions from the agricultural community.
“We want to make sure government understands the great many actions already taken by farmers to reduce pollution in the Great Lakes and, as we move ahead setting targets, we need to make sure this has been recognized,” he said.
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The OFA will seek representation on the Great Lakes Guardians’ Council, which was set up under Bill 66, which focuses on maintaining wetland infrastructure and reducing the incidence of algae blooms on Lake Erie.
Phosphorus is a key contributor to the blooms, which have previously released toxins that have forced water treatment plant shutdowns along Erie’s shallow western basin. They have also been linked to low oxygen conditions in the deeper central basin.
It’s not known how much farmers will be asked to contribute to phosphorus loading reductions, but overall targets that have been set through the Great Lakes water quality agreement between Canada and the United States in-tend to reduce loading in Lake Erie by 40 percent, or 6,000 tonnes, a year.
“With this amount of reduction we don’t expect algae blooms to be eliminated entirely. We expect we’ll only have one significant bloom every 10 years,” Jody McKenna of Environment Canada told the 2015 Binational Lake St. Clair Conference in Chatham Oct. 21.
Eight watersheds are slated for phosphorus reduction:
- Six in the United States, including the Maumee River watershed.
- Two in Canada: the Thames River watershed and the small creeks flowing through the greenhouse-rich Leamington-Kingville area.
Sewage treatment contributes to phosphorus loading but most of the problem is caused by non-point sources, mainly agricultural.
The creeks flow directly into Lake Erie, while the Thames enters Lake St. Clair. However, its flow moves down the Detroit River and from there hugs Lake Erie’s north shore before moving into Lake Erie’s central basin.
The Thames is a significant contributor of phosphorus but there are bigger ones, said Karen Maaskant of the Upper Thames Region Conservation Authority. The Maumee and Detroit River both deliver 10 times as much to Lake Erie.
Gabe Ferguson, an environmental program specialist with Ontario’s agriculture ministry, said farmers can likely support phosphorus reduction targets without affecting yields by improving soil health.
Phosphorus loading of the Great Lakes was significantly reduced in the 1970s and 1980s, but the incidences of Lake Erie blooms have increased in recent years.
McKenna said culprits include population growth and issues related to climate change: warmer water temperatures, longer growing seasons and the increase in storm events, which move phosphorus from agricultural fields into waterways.
Canada and the United States share the Lake Erie watershed, which is home to rich agricultural soil and 13.5 million people who deposit eight billion litres of treated sewage annually into the lake.
