Indiana will receive more than $400,000 from the EPA to work on improving water quality in Lake Erie’s western basin. Waterways in six northeastern Indiana counties feed into Lake Erie’s western basin. Soil and manure runoff from farming that enter those waterways can cause algal blooms in Lake Erie.
The State Department of Agriculture will use the funding for workshops for farmers, and expanding soil and manure testing. Much of the money will be used for improving water quality in the St. Marys River and Upper Maumee watersheds, which empty into Lake Erie.
“This funding reinforces the critical work being done in the Western Lake Erie Basin,” says Lt. Governor Suzanne Crouch, Indiana’s Secretary of Agriculture and Rural Development. “We have a long road ahead, but every action taken to improve water quality, whether large or small, is a step in the right direction.”
