(Toledo, OH) Phosphorus runoff into Lake Erie already appears to be dropping along the Maumee River.
The Ohio Lake Erie Commission recently took public comment on a draft plan to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake by 40 percent by the year 2025.
But a recent study shows nearly 2,300 metric tons of phosphorus from the Maumee River watershed in 2013 had already dropped to just over 2,000 metric tons a year later-- a reduction of more than ten percent.
The Maumee River drains about 66-hundred square miles of Northwest Ohio into the lake. While farm runoff is largely blamed for toxic algae blooms in the lake, land use drops from 80 percent agricultural to less than 50 percent once the Maumee river gets to the Toledo metro area.