COLUMBUS, Ohio — Three state agencies have launched the Ohio Clean Lakes Initiative, a program geared toward improving water quality and reducing harmful algal blooms.

Gov. John Kasich asked the Ohio departments of Natural Resources (ODNR) and Agriculture (ODA) and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the issue of agricultural nutrient management. They met over a seven-month period; approximately 125 groups were involved. A series of recommendations were announced in March.

“The Ohio Clean Lakes Initiative is one way that we are starting to implement those recommendations,” said Karl Gebhardt, deputy director and chief of ODNR Soil and Water Resources. “It is a combination of education, outreach, but more importantly, actually getting practices on the ground to help address the agricultural nutrient issue, to prevent that from going into our streams and our lakes.

“It targets the entire state but we are focusing our attention right now on five counties in northwest Ohio that are in the Maumee River watershed: Wood, Henry, Defiance, Paulding and Putnam.”

The directors of those three agencies are doing outreach through the county Soil and Water Conservation Districts to identify farmers who may have an interest in some of the practices they’re promoting, Gebhardt said. Those include a lot of variable rate technology, concerning the placement of fertilizer, and in most cases also including a cover crop or incorporation of fertilizer into the soil, Gebhardt said.

“One other very important practice is the controlled drainage device,” he explained. “That is a device that controls the amount of water that is coming out of a field tile system.”

There are cost-share incentives to participate in the Clean Lakes Initiative in the five targeted counties, Gebhardt said. State Rep. Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green) of Wood County was instrumental in securing the funding that made the program possible.

The incentives are on a per-acre basis that range from $22 to $66 per acre depending on the type of practice being implemented and the size of the farm it is being placed on, said Gebhardt.

The payment for the controlled drainage device ranges from $1,000-$4,000, depending on how complex the drainage system is and what engineering needs to be done.

“The result of providing this incentive to the farmers is, once a farmer has put these practices in place, then we can use those as demonstration plots for other farmers to look at and determine if it would work on their farm,” Gebhardt said. “They can actually talk with the farmer who implemented the practice about the benefits of doing that practice.”

The directors have had some positive reactions and they’re hoping to continue to improve the situation through a voluntary process, he said.

The directors’ recommendations also include suggestions for the implementation of a 4R Nutrient Stewardship Program, Gebhardt said. That promotes using the right fertilizer source at the right rate, at the right time, with the right placement.

“We think the farmers, as they have done in the past, are participating,” he said. “They understand the concern; there are multiple sources of phosphorous going into the lake through streams in Ohio, but our focus at this point is with the ag community, and they have been very responsive.”

For more information, visit www.clean lakes.ohio.gov