By KEVIN WALKER

Michigan Correspondent

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan officials earlier this month released the final version of the state’s Lake Erie Domestic Action Plan (DAP), and they hope that measures called for will reduce phosphorus emissions into the Western Lake Erie Basin 40 percent by 2025.

The Michigan DAP is a joint effort of the state’s departments of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Agriculture and Natural Resources. The final document, initially released in June, incorporates public comments received following its release last year, according to a press release. The final DAP can be viewed and downloaded online at www.michigan.gov/mdard

The final DAP provides a more detailed implementation timeline and identifies how each agency will report its progress. At some point the DAP will be integrated into a larger comprehensive plan that will combine plans from nearby Great Lakes states and the province of Ontario, as well as plans from the U.S. and Canadian federal governments.

A DAP or similar plan is also called for by the Western Lake Erie Basin Collaborative Agreement, a separate agreement signed by Michigan, Ohio and Ontario.

“Lake Erie is one of our treasured Great Lakes and it provides significant recreational opportunities for Michiganders as well,” said C. Heidi Grether, director of the DEQ. “Utilizing an all-encompassing and collaborative approach like Michigan’s Domestic Action Plan provides a viable adaptive framework to further limit phosphorus and work across urban and rural sources to address water quality issues.”

“The causes of algal blooms are complex, and Michigan’s Domestic Action Plan underscores the need to take a holistic approach to improving water quality in the lake,” said new state Agriculture Director Gordon Wenk. “Our plan will show the measurable steps being taken on several fronts, including implementation of agriculture best practices.”

The final DAP outlines three main goals that are consistent with a plan rolled out by the EPA and sets out specific actions that need to be taken to achieve a 40 percent phosphorus reduction in the lake. The steps include:

•Tightening sewage treatment facility permits

•Targeting Michigan’s portion of the Maumee River and River Raisin watersheds for phosphorus reduction

•Increasing research on soluble reactive phosphorus

•Increasing assistance to farmers for best management practices

•More “outreach and education” around Lake Erie

According to the DAP, the “nutrient loading” problem in Lake Erie started as far back as 1960, around the time when the lake was declared “dead.” By the 1970s conditions in the lake improved as efforts were made to cut back on runoff into it.

In more recent times, trouble has returned in the form of blue-green algal blooms in the Western Lake Erie Basin. In one famous instance, cyanotoxins got caught in the Toledo water supply system, shutting off the Ohio city’s water for three days. That was in 2014.

Environmentalists tend to blame the algae problem on fertilizer runoff from area farms. Michigan officials sometimes point the finger at Ohio, which they say is primarily responsible for the Maumee River watershed.

Some scientists, on the other hand, point the finger at invasive species, namely zebra and quagga mussels, which selectively feed on green algae and thereby cause a proliferation of blue-green algae.