New lawsuit threatened over algal blooms in Lake Erie

SANDUSKY — An anti-pollution group, which already won one lawsuit against the U.S. EPA, is threatening to file a new lawsuit in two months if the agency doesn't take further action to fight harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie on Tuesday sent a "Notice of Intent to sue" letter to Andrew Wheeler, the acting administrator of the U.S. EPA, threatening to file a new federal lawsuit in 60 days if the agency doesn't decide within that time limit whether the Ohio EPA is complying with the Clean Water Act.The advocacy group contends that under the act, the two agencies are required to set a Total Maximum Daily Load for pollutants in the lake. The group is demanding that the U.S. EPA decide within 60 days whether the Ohio EPA is required to develop a TMDL for western Lake Erie.Under federal law, citizens can file a lawsuit against the EPA contending that the agency has failed to enforce anti-pollution laws. First, however, a 60-day notice must be given that a lawsuit is on the way.Setting a Total Maximum Daily Load for the lake would trigger the additional regulation that's needed to reduce the phosphorus pollution that's feeding harmful algal blooms, the advocacy group contends."We are simply not going away until Lake Erie's polluters are held accountable for cleaning it up," said Mike Ferner, ACLE coordinator. "We believe there are sufficient grounds to file a new action after Federal District Judge Carr dismissed our earlier complaint in October."The Tuesday letter sent to Wheeler by certified mail was written by the Environmental Law and Policy Center, an environmental legal advocacy center which represented Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie in the earlier lawsuit.That lawsuit, filed in July 2017 in federal court in Toledo, sought to force the U.S. EPA to declare the water of western Lake Erie as "impaired" under federal law. The Ohio EPA had declared the lake's coastal waters impaired, but not the lake's open waters.Apparently in response to the lawsuit, the U.S. EPA admitted it was in the wrong when it previously approved an Ohio EPA report that failed to determine if all of Lake Erie's waters are impaired. The Ohio EPA then released a report declaring that Lake Erie's open waters are "impaired."The groups had brought the lawsuit hoping to force more government action to clean up the lake, and the announcement of intent to sue is pursuing the same goal.Waves lap against the Lake Erie shore near Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve. Mike Ferner, coordinator for Advocates for a Clean Lake Erie.