Michigan officials have released plans to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Erie to ease the worsening problem of harmful algae blooms.
Michigan and Ohio signed a deal in June with the Canadian province of Ontario to cut phosphorus flows into the suffering lake by 40 per cent over the next decade.
The Department of Environmental Quality says Michigan will maintain phosphorus reductions required under a permit issued to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in 2011 and order the Wayne County Downriver Wastewater Treatment Plant to achieve similar cutbacks.
Additionally, the plan promises co-operation with Ohio and Indiana on phosphorus reduction in the Maumee River basin and continuing study of harmful algae blooms in Michigan waters, including the role that invasive mussels might play.
The DEQ is accepting comments on the plan through Dec. 7 and has scheduled a public meeting for Dec. 1 in Monroe.
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