COLUMBUS, Ohio — Earlier this month Gov. John Kasich signed state Senate Bill 1 aimed at protecting Lake Erie and Ohio’s water quality. It restricts the spreading of manure and other fertilizers that contribute to toxic algae blooms, moves away from open-lake dumping of dredged material and increases monitoring at water-treatment plants.

"Saving Lake Erie requires a new sense of urgency equal to the value Lake Erie provides to Ohio and the nation," said Sen. Randy Gardner (R-Bowling Green), who was one of the sponsors of the bill. "The Ohio Farm Bureau, The Ohio Farmer’s Union and every agriculture organization in Ohio supports the bill because it provides significant flexibility for those with livestock to use best agricultural practices."

The bill prohibits spreading manure and other fertilizers with phosphorous and nitrogen when ground is frozen, snow-covered or saturated. It also prohibits spreading manure if the forecast calls for a 50 percent chance of half an inch of precipitation over 24 hours or, for granular fertilizers, an inch over 12 hours. It also requires public water treatment plants handling 1 million or more gallons a day to monthly monitor phosphorous levels beginning Dec. 1, 2016.

For some farmers in the northeastern part of Ohio the new legislation may be an inconvenience, but it may have an economic impact on others. Dan Morlock, a Portage County dairy farmer, said it will probably have an impact on his family operation. "At this point, I have not seen all the details, so I am going to have to do some further investigation," he said. "I know we will not be able to haul manure when there is snow on the ground."

He milks about 40 cows with about 80 or more on the farm at any given time. "I will likely have to build something for manure storage," he said. "It will cost us a lot to store that much manure."

According to a summary bill analysis created by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission, the prohibitions do not affect any restrictions established in the Concentrated Animal Feeding Facilities Law or otherwise apply to those entities or facilities that are permitted as concentrated animal feeding facilities under the law. The bill does have provisions which allow small and medium-size farms to file for one- or two-year exemptions giving them time to meet any guidelines which apply.

Phil Wenig, a local farmer from Haskins and an Ohio Corn Marketing program board member, said the legislation could be more of an inconvenience for smaller farmers. "Most of the smaller operations such as hobby farmers and those with fair projects use a straw pack operation for manure handling," he said. "In other words, the straw is used for bedding for the animals and the manure is mixed in with the straw as the animals take care of business in the barns."

The manure and straw mixture, he adds, is later applied to the fields or properly handled in other ways.

"They already do things environmentally correct," Wenig said. "Most Wood County livestock operators are small family operations; it’s not economically feasible for them to change or upgrade their manure management storage facilitates. Everyone I know of is very conscientious of the manure handling operations."

One of the main concerns of the bill is the application of liquid manure and fertilizers. While many farmers do use liquid fertilizers, the liquid manure is more a concern for the concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. Most smaller livestock producers do not have a liquid manure pit and thus would never apply liquid manure on frozen ground, nor any other time of the year, according to Wenig.

"I cannot knife my manure; it has to be a liquid to do that. Small operations simply cannot do that," he said.

The bill was sponsored by Gardner and Sen. Bob Peterson (R-Sabina) and takes effect 90 days after the governor signs it.