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Dear John,
Yesterday was a big day in our fight to protect Western Lake Erie from the pervasive harmful algal blooms that have threatened safe drinking water, damaged fisheries, and harmed the economy.
ELPC has been in ongoing litigation against the U.S EPA for their lack of action to protect Lake Erie. Yesterday, in a big victory, U.S. District Court Judge James Carr ruled that our case has strong legal merit and denied the U.S. EPA’s motion to dismiss it.
Judge Carr’s detailed 31-page Opinion clears out the legal underbrush and establishes a key legal precedent: the federal Clean Water Act requires the State of Ohio and the U.S. EPA to adopt Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). TMDL’s are enforceable regulatory standards to require, in this case, reductions of agricultural runoff pollution – manure from concentrated animal feeding operations and fertilizer from crop fields – sufficient to alleviate recurring toxic algae outbreaks in Western Lake Erie.
ELPC fights for the Midwest and our Great Lakes. Our effective legal strategy puts us one big step closer to ensuring we clean up Lake Erie from the pervasive toxic algae. Support ELPC today and your gift will be matched dollar for dollar by a generous $15,000 match. ([link removed])
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Judge Carr wrote in his Opinion that the Ohio EPA, “is essentially delaying, and intends to continue to delay indefinitely, a TMDL for western Lake Erie in favor of alleged half measures.” And continues, “Even more significantly, perhaps, Ohio does not have a plan to change course should those measures fail to remediate Lake Erie.”
We plan to move for summary judgment and a full ruling on the merits of the case by spring 2020 so that the State of Ohio can move expeditiously in adopting enforceable regulatory standards that are sufficient to reduce phosphorus (mostly manure and fertilizer) runoff pollution into Western Lake Erie by 40% by 2025 as Ohio has committed to do. The goal is to clean up Lake Erie sooner, rather than later, and bring an end to the recurring severe toxic algae outbreaks.
ELPC is joined by co-plaintiff Lucas County. The Cities of Toledo and Oregon have also weighed in with their support for requiring TMDLs.
Thank you for your ongoing support. We are proud of these results and while here is much more work to be done, we won’t stop fighting. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Best wishes,
Howard A. Learner
Executive Director,
Environmental Law & Policy Center
P.S. The $15,000 match is only good through Giving Tuesday. Please give generously today ([link removed]) and help us continue the fight to protect the Great Lakes.
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