Oregon Council member Sandy Bihn at a council meeting Monday said the algae in Lake Erie is getting worse.

“The situation in Lake Erie with the algae is becoming more and more grave,” she said to council. “There’s a lot of newspaper articles that are referring to Lake Erie as dying again. Obviously, that can impact the treatment cost for water intake, it can affect the economy of the lake and economy of the region.”

Much of the algae is caused by storm water runoff of fertilizer from farm fields that is carried into the lake. A recent study indicates the algae may also be caused by sewage overflows.

“I would hope that we would develop some sort of plan and approach of trying to find solutions,” said Bihn.

Councilman Jerry Peach agreed.

“Mrs. Bihn is right to remind us of the problem we’ve been experiencing – by `we’ I mean all of us who are on Lake Erie with respect to the algae problem. I don’t know if everyone on council, and the administration, is aware but there is a recent report by the U.S. Geologial Survey that found sewage treatment plants in Detroit, Toledo and other lakeside communities put nearly the same amount of phosphorous into Lake Erie as the phosphorous that could be found in fertilizers and farm runoff. If their findings are correct, I think it’s an interesting finding,” said Peach.

The wastewater plant in Detroit, which is the largest wastewater plant in the United States, according to Bihn, has had problems with sewage overflow.

“It’s absolutely huge. In 2011, it is at or approaching sewage overflows to the tune of over 30 billion gallons to date coming into Lake Erie,” said Bihn. “The permit for that facility is up in 2012. I would like to see communities in the state of Ohio aggressively taking on the state of Michigan. In fact, a federal judge ruled last week that they have to do something in 60 days because they keep putting it off, putting it off, and putting it off. For communities in Ohio – Oregon to some extent, but more so Toledo, Cleveland, and Sandusky - are investing millions of dollars in upgrades and taking care of the problem, while really blatant, aggressive overflows continue to happen in Detroit, which seems to be unaddressed.”

Detroit, she added, is taking a “band-aid” approach to address the problem.

“They said they’re broke and can’t do it right and only want to do it minimally. I would hope that we could encourage our state officials to take a very aggressive role in the permitting process next year,” said Bihn.

Councilman Mike Sheehy asked who oversees the permitting process at the federal level.

“Requirements come through the U.S. EPA,” said Bihn, “and administered by the states.” They are enforced by the courts.

The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits, said Bihn, are administered by the states.

“The State of Ohio administers ours. However, most places - Toledo, Cleveland and others - have been taken to court. There are consent decrees that require upgrades in these facilities. Detroit, too, has a consent decree,” said Bihn.

Detroit was ordered by a judge a couple of years ago to build infrastructure to reduce the overflows, but the city appealed to the state, saying it couldn’t afford it, said Bihn.

“They wanted to stop the whole project. And now the judge is coming back and saying it’s just not right. So it’s in federal court,” said Bihn. “The permit actually comes out of the state court pursuant to the federal requirements under the Clean Water Act.

Detroit will seek a renewal of its wastewater permit from the state in 2012.

“What we could do is if Ohio would engage in that process, we could ask Michigan to do what’s right for Lake Erie and reduce the overages,” said Bihn.

After the meeting, Bihn said she plans on introducing a resolution next month to council that would ask the state to take action against the Detroit wastewater treatment plant.

“With the permit for the Detroit wastewater plant up for renewal in 2012, a lot of us would like to see the Ohio state administration getting involved in that process and doing something about the sewage overflows,” she said. “I want them – the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the attorney general’s office and others - to comment, take legal action if necessary, to get it stopped.”

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