Great Lakes website launches

SANDUSKY — The Great Lakes Commission launched a new website to track progress on important environmental issues, including dealing with harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. The new Blue Accounting website at blueaccounting.org provides tracking for a variety of issues, including phosphorus levels in Lake Erie and invasive species. For example, a key effort in the fight against harmful algal blooms is an agreement by Ohio, Michigan and the Canadian province of Ontario to reduce the amount of phosphorus in western and central Lake Erie by 40% from 2008 levels. The website provides tracking for phosphorus levels in the Maumee River watershed in Ohio, a key factor in whether Lake Erie will have a large or a small harmful algal bloom. Website visitors can create charts to monitor phosphorus levels since 2008, creating charts for total phosphorus or for soluble reactive phosphorus, i.e. phosphorus in the water that can be used by algae. Similarly, the site has a section for tracking efforts to contain invasive species. While the Lake Erie phosphorus section is live, much of the new site appears to be a work in progress. Metrics for efforts to control established invasive species, for example, are listed as "in development." Efforts to track drinking water, maritime transportation and climate resiliency projects will be added to the website, the Great Lakes Commission says. "Connecting scientists and policy experts across sectors is one of the key values this new site is bringing to the region," said Todd L. Ambs of Wisconsin, chairman of the Great Lakes Commission. "It's our goal to use data to answer the critical question of how we are doing when it comes to protecting and restoring our Great Lakes." Foundations that provided money to launch the website included the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation.