ODNR APPLAUDS FEDERAL EFFORTS TO HALT POLLUTION IN
GRAND LAKE ST. MARYS
Lake watershed included in the 2007 Farm Bill as a “conservation priority area”

COLUMBUS, OH – The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) applauds and supports the efforts of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown to tap federal funding for clean up of Grand Lake St. Marys in Mercer and Auglaize counties.

Brown’s office announced Wednesday that the senator had succeeded in inserting language into the 2007 Farm Bill that would make federal funding available to local farmers for measures that reduce agricultural runoff into the lake. The 13,000-acre lake, Ohio’s largest inland body of water and home to a 500-acre state park, has long faced water quality issues stemming from excess fertilizer, sediment and manure runoff in its 112 square-mile watershed.

Staff members from the ODNR Division of Soil & Water Conservation worked with Brown’s office in recent weeks to include Grand Lake St. Marys as a “conservation priority area” in the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The lake is one of three such areas designated in the 2007 Farm Bill, which is now pending before Congress. Passage of the legislation would help area farmers obtain federal funds over the next five years to establish 40-foot buffer zones around tributary streams in the watershed. These buffer zones will reduce soil erosion and fertilizer run off – two major sources of pollution in the lake.

Support of Brown’s legislation is part of ODNR’s continuing effort to improve water quality in the historic lake. Most recently, the agency has worked with both the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to support clean up of the watershed on the local level. Over the last five years, ODNR has provided $207,813 in grants to the Grand Lake Saint Marys Joint Board of Supervisors for Mercer and Auglaize Soil & Water Conservation Districts to hire a watershed coordinator and develop a comprehensive Watershed Action Plan for the region. The OEPA and ODNR have fully endorsed the action plan, which is now serving as a guide for improving the lake’s water quality. The agency also dredges the lake on an ongoing basis to improve boating and other recreational use. Since 1992, ODNR has spent about $6.5 million to dredge the lake. More than $1 million of that amount was spent in the last two years. The proposed Farm Bill could help reduce costs for that dredging over time.

Grand Lake St. Marys was hand dug in the 1830s and 40s as a water source for the Miami & Erie Canal. In many ways, its history reflects the history of Ohio from the era of canal boats, through times of economic boom and bust, to the challenges of modern farming. Today, it is valued as both a local water source and as a recreational destination. Grand Lake St. Marys State Park hosted about 735,000 visitors in 2006.

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For Additional Information Contact:
Jane Beathard, ODNR Media Relations
(614) 265-6860
-OR-
David Hanselmann, ODNR Soil & Water Conservation
(614) 265-6618