Institute of Water Research

Project Summary

Lake Erie, Michigan’s warmest and shallowest Great Lake, experiences chronic harmful algal blooms fueled primarily by excess phosphorus inputs. Agricultural sources of phosphorus pollution are the main impediment to achieving the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement’s 2025 40% reduction target for total phosphorus and dissolved reactive phosphorus. 

Despite agreed upon benchmarks, Michigan currently lacks a comprehensive land and water quality monitoring strategy for Michigan’s Western Basin of Lake Erie. This inhibits the State’s ability to: accurately understand baseline pollutant loading; efficiently prioritize implementation of on-farm conservation practices; and quantify progress toward the binational 40% phosphorus reduction target. Given the scale of the remaining nonpoint source load entering Lake Erie it is critical to reliably track in-stream water quality changes to inform future projects, investments, and policies in the Western Lake Erie Basin. 

This work complements ongoing efforts at state agencies to identify priority locations for conservation practices at a HUC12 watershed scale using the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework. This monitoring work will bolster the State’s ability to prioritize sub watersheds for conservation and measure any resulting water quality improvements from the same.