Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Ohio must deal with its algae issues, said one local expert who believes a new $172 million state fund will provide some needed attention and resources for water quality problems.
Many Ohioans will head to state waterways for Labor Day weekend on the heels of the state setting aside the money for the next two years for the H2Ohio fund. The fund will support programs designed to protect Ohio’s waterways and prevent pollution.
Gov. Mike DeWine also recently met with several area researchers regarding algae and pollution problems that Ohioans will likely encounter over the holiday weekend.
One of them was Stephen Jacquemin, a Wright State University Lake Campus biology professor and researcher who works in the school’s agriculture and water quality center on Grand Lake St. Marys. The meeting, among other initiatives, shows “Ohio is making water quality a priority in a way that we haven’t seen before,” Jacquemin said.
The new fund comes a little more than a year after former Gov. John Kasich took executive action to require the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to create rules to protect Lake Erie.
The fund will establish programs to minimize nutrient runoff into Ohio’s waterways, pay for more staffing in soil and water conservation districts, create restoration programs for wetlands areas and support research, according to the governor’s office. The fund will also bolster ongoing efforts to improve Lake Erie and other rivers and lakes.
