OABA Provides Support for OSU Water Quality Program

Program to Focus on Ag Practices and Policies to Prevent Harmful Algal Blooms in Wake of Toledo Water Crisis

In the wake of the Toledo water crisis, the Ohio AgriBusiness Association continues to provide ongoing support for improving Ohio’s water quality.

With phosphorus runoff from farmland cited as a cause of the harmful algal blooms plaguing Lake Erie and other lakes, the importance of enacting safe and sustainable on-farm practices has become more important than ever. In August, toxins from a bloom in western Lake Erie led to a two-day drinking ban in Toledo.

OABA is providing support for an Oct. 14 event designed to engage participants in significant discussion on key issues related to harmful algal blooms -- “Ohio’s Water Resources and Citizens at Risk: Ag-related Practices and Policies to Prevent Harmful Algal Blooms, Post-Toledo” -- hosted by the Environmental Professionals Network.

The event’s first panel will look at the science of reducing phosphorus runoff, including new on-farm practices, technology and equipment. Panelists include:

• Libby Dayton, research scientist with The Ohio State University’s School of Environmental and Natural Resources. Dayton is doing research to revise Ohio’s Phosphorus Risk Index. Farmers use the index to plan their fertilizer applications.

• Steve Davis, watershed specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.

• Doug Busdecker, area general manager with The Andersons.

• Carrie Vollmer-Sanders, director of The Nature Conservancy’s Western Lake Erie Basin Project. President Obama honored Vollmer-Sanders in March for her work with farmers to reduce nutrient runoff into Lake Erie.

The second panel will focus on policy, including possible new laws, rules and outreach for limiting phosphorus runoff. The panelists will be:

• Larry Antosch, senior director of policy development and environmental policy with the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation.

• Kristy Meyer, the Ohio Environmental Council’s managing director of agricultural, health and clean water programs.

• Tim Haab, chair and professor in OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, whose research includes the fields of environmental economics and nonmarket valuation — people’s willingness to pay for public goods such as clean water.

The event is 7:15-10:10 a.m. in the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, on Ohio State’s Columbus campus.

Admission includes a full breakfast and is open to both members and nonmembers of the network. Registration costs $10 or $15, depending on payment method. Payment by credit card is due by 5 p.m. Oct. 10. Complete details and a link to online registration and payment are at go.osu.edu/pz7.

For more information, contact David Hanselmann at hanselmann.3@osu.edu or 614-247-1908.

Click here to read the original article by The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.