Maintain H2Ohio

Gov. Mike DeWine is taking no chances on letting his legacy program, H2Ohio, fall victim to the “not invented here” syndrome and become a budgetary afterthought.

The governor has been moving throughout the Lake Erie watershed, stopping in Toledo last week, to make the case for continuous funding for a program that has shown improved water quality and established a state commitment to protect Ohio’s most important natural resource.

Mr. DeWine has accepted the fact that the General Assembly shows little appetite to put a bond issue on the ballot seeking a guaranteed funding source for the H2Ohio program but is wise to use his last few months in office to maintain momentum for the program in the next state budget.

Both candidates to succeed Mr. DeWine have expressed support for H2Ohio, so it’s unlikely the $645 million invested in remediation of algal blooms in the western basin of Lake Erie, off the shore in Toledo will be abandoned by ending the effort.

However, the motivation for maintaining H2Ohio may well change. Currently, the H2Ohio program provides protection to the concentrated animal feeding operations in the Lake Erie watershed.

The CAFOs are considered a big part of the problem causing Lake Erie algal blooms because of runoff from manure fertilized fields that runs off into ditches, creeks, and rivers that ultimately feed into the lake.

The Blade Editorial Board believes the issue of algal blooms on Lake Erie is likely to become much more important than either candidate for governor or any candidate for the state legislature is currently considering.

The University of Toledo is in the midst of the Great Lakes Aerosol Monitoring Research to determine if the algal blooms present an airborne health risk. Bowling Green State University researchers have already independently verified toxins from algal blooms hundreds of miles away from the source of the blooms in a study done in Florida.

Imagine the impact of science that shows Lake Erie algal blooms consuming hundreds of square miles of the water spewing airborne toxins traced to cancer, Alzheimer’s, and ALS throughout Ohio’s north coast.

With Lake Erie as the source of our drinking water, Toledo has been protected from the harmful effects of the algal blooms at the great public expense of $500 million.

An airborne threat would be a significantly more challenging issue, so it’s only prudent that Ohio maintain H2Ohio as a program to safeguard public health and to act as the first line of defense if science confirms the toxins from algal blooms are a worse problem than currently known.