Detroit Free Press - Save Great Lakes From Farm pollution The Michigan Way

Op-Ed

By Rep. Candice Miller and Rep. Tim Walberg

Michigan farmers are among the hardest-working individuals we represent in the U.S. House. They are also the original environmentalists, because no one takes better care of the Earth than someone who makes a living from it.

Healthy and sustainable land, water and air are a necessary prerequisite for a successful farm. And a successful future for their children and grandchildren.

Farmers across Michigan have long led the way in conservation practices. Over the past several years, their efforts have been boosted by the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP).

MAEAP is proven to help farmers voluntarily develop sound environmental practices aimed at limiting the impact of excess runoff from fertilizers and pesticides, protecting our water, our soil and air. The program provides farmers with official environmental certification accompanied by financial assistance.

It's time to take the Michigan success story on the road.

Today, we introduced legislation called the Great Lakes Assurance Program Verification Act to promote proactive measures in each of the Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) to minimize agricultural pollution risks.

Our legislation would authorize the federal government to assist the states and their agricultural producers in implementing voluntary procedures aimed at protecting our environment. Specifically, states would be able to apply for grants from the USDA's Environmental Quality Incentives Program to administer and promote state-level assistance programs like Michigan's. Agricultural producers would also be eligible for priority consideration in applications for federally funded conservation projects.

Neither of these provisions would require additional federal funding.

To understand the imperative of expanding voluntary environmental assurance programs, we need look no further than last summer's experience in western Lake Erie, where a toxic algae bloom shut down the water supply for the City of Toledo for more than two days.

While the precise dynamic that led to Lake Erie's condition is not fully known, there is no question that fertilizer runoff from agricultural land played a role. And the event served as a wake-up call for those of us who regard the Great Lakes ecosystem as a national and natural treasure. Ohio has responded with state-level legislation aimed at curtailing the risk from agricultural runoff.

But June's heavy rainfall has prompted concern about the prospect of another, potentially damaging algae bloom.

We can reduce those risks going forward by expanding the Michigan model across the Great Lakes basin.

Farmers want to do the right thing. They don't benefit from sending excess fertilizer into Lake Erie or any of our waterways.

Approaches like the MAEAP give farmers the tools to calibrate their use of fertilizer, manure and pesticides that maximize their benefits without jeopardizing the environment. They help farmers succeed and avoid the legal hazard of unintended consequences. They result in cleaner water, cleaner soil and cleaner air.

It's time to spread those incentives throughout the Great Lakes.

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