Gov. John Kasich issued an executive order on July 11 that creates additional regulation for Ohio’s agriculture community. Touted as an effort to improve water quality, the order places agriculture at the forefront of the issue as a “leading contributing factor” to increased phosphorus levels and algal blooms. These new regulations affect approximately 7,000 farmers and 2 million acres in eight watersheds located in the Western Lake Erie Basin that could be designated as “Watersheds in Distress” as a result of this action.
The executive order requests that the Ohio Soil and Water Conservation Commission designate those watersheds as Watersheds in Distress and adopt a rules package to address them. It also directs the creation of administrative rules “for the use, storage, handling and control of nutrients and the development of management plans for all agricultural land and operations within each designated watershed.” In a conference call with state agency leaders, the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association (OCA) was told these rules will attempt to regulate both manure and commercial fertilizer.
Without consulting agriculture groups, or even including them in the announcement, the order disparages Ohio farmers’ many voluntary conservation efforts and millions of dollars spent by agriculture organizations on water quality research and education.
OCA believes in regulatory transparency and working in a collaborative effort to improve water quality and is extremely disappointed in this approach. We hope the administration will include input from agriculture groups in the future and work together to identify solutions to lessen the algal bloom in the Western Lake Erie Basin.
OCA will continue to work alongside other Ohio agricultural organizations (read the letter to Gov. Kasich forewarning the executive order) to represent Ohio’s cattle farming families on this issue. Check ohiocattle.org for more information as this issue evolves.