Local organizations and municipalities are teaming up to prevent algal blooms in Lake Erie.
The Thames River Phosphorus Reduction Collaborative is made up of the cities of Chatham-Kent and London, the OFA, Chippewa First Nations, and the Conservation Authority.
Mark Reusser, Vice President of the OFA, says their group has a specific focus.
“Our particular group is dealing almost specifically with regard to drainage, and phosphorus in drainage ditches,” Reusser says. “Kent-Essex region has a lot of drainage ditches, a lot of bridges, so we’re trying to address the issue of how do your prevent phosphorus getting into drainage ditches, which eventually empty into the rive and the lake, and how od you address it once the phosphorus is already in there.”
Reusser says the work has already started.
“Farmers are doing things like utilizing the 4R program, making sure that they do not apply more phosphorus than is necessary for the growth of their crops,” he explains. “They are also doing things like building grass waterways, so when water runs through the fields it doesn’t carry soil with it, they are building buffers between their drainage ditches and their streams and their fields.”
The 4R program refers to using the right source of nutrients at the right rate and right time in the right place.
The Thames River collects phosphorus through drainage and the water shed, which ends up in Lake Erie.
