- Michigan won’t meet its 2025 deadline to reduce the phosphorus pollution that feeds toxic blooms in Lake Erie
- On Tuesday, the state released its updated plan to fight pollution, but didn’t set a new deadline
- Environmentalists say that the plan won’t be enough unless governments force farmers to reduce pollution
Michigan and its neighbors have missed a 2025 deadline to curb the farm pollution that feeds toxic cyanobacterial blooms in western Lake Erie, despite 10 years of work and millions of dollars spent on the effort.
Now, state officials in Michigan are revamping their strategy. But they’re not setting a new deadline for now.
“Seeing how we’re implementing these newer approaches is an important step before updating some of the timelines,” said Tim Boring, the director of Michigan’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
He added that any future deadline should be “realistic and achievable.”
The state’s strategy irks environmentalists who have long criticized Great Lakes governments for refusing to regulate farm pollution while instead leaning on voluntary programs that aren’t working.
“These were commitments made by the state of Ohio, by the state of Michigan, by the United States. And there hasn’t been any kind of honest reckoning with why they failed and why it’s continuing to happen,” said Rob Michaels, a senior attorney at the Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center.
As part of a 2015 agreement, Michigan, Ohio and Ontario gave themselves 10 years to reduce the amount of phosphorus entering Lake Erie by 40% compared to 2008 levels. It had been clear for several years that they weren’t going to meet that deadline. Now, it’s official.
In the five years between 2018 and 2023, southeast Michigan’s River Raisin and Upper Maumee River watersheds — where so-called “non-point” sources like farm runoff account for about 95% of the total phosphorus loads — only met the 40% reduction goal once, in 2021. The year was notable for its low rainfall, which limited opportunities for fertilizer to be carried into bodies of water.
State officials in Michigan say they need at least three more years to get the job done, while officials in Ohio did not respond to inquiries from Bridge Michigan.
Most of the pollution driving Lake Erie’s blooms comes from farm fields and feedlots in Ohio, where the biggest share of landmass drains into western Lake Erie. Ohio’s lack of progress on farm pollution is the key sticking point in a lawsuit from environmental groups who contend the state’s pollution reduction plans are designed to fail.
Still, Michigan plays a significant role in the lake's pollution problems. And although the state has reduced phosphorus pollution from wastewater treatment plants and factories, it has struggled to curtail the phosphorus-rich fertilizer that pours into the lake from farms and feedlots, Boring said.
Worsening rainfall over the past decade, Boring said, “continues to be a real challenge” and could help explain why the state’s reduction efforts fell short.
Others blame the missed deadline on regional governments’ refusal to force farmers to curb fertilizer pollution.
States like Michigan have long relied on a voluntary system in which farmers are paid or otherwise encouraged to adopt practices that can reduce pollution. But environmentalists, elected officials and water treatment plant operators have criticized that system as an ineffective waste of money.
