St. Marys, Ohio-Agriculture producers, landowners, and livestock operators are aware that proper nutrient management is the only way they can help improve the water quality of Grand Lake St. Marys, where state environmental managers have advised against swimming because of extensive algae buildup and the toxins this condition may produce. According to the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, both rural and urban watershed residents are doing what they can to improve water quality. Over $2 million in Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) funding has been secured to create buffer strips along creeks running into the lake and to address land management practices such as developing grass buffers, planting cover crops, and helping operators who are interested in constructing additional manure storage to avoid winter application and reduce potential runoff into Ohio’s largest inland lake, which covers 12,700 acres. “In the case of Grand Lake St. Marys,” stated Larry M. Antosch, the farm bureau’s senior director of program innovation, “progress is taking place, but the impact to water quality will take time. The physical nature of the lake being shallow at less than 10 feet deep means that recovery will not take place overnight. It took many years to get the lake where it is today, and it will take many more to get it where everyone wants it to be.”
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