The Ohio House and Senate passed the state budget Wednesday which includes a nearly 40% cut to the H2Ohio Program. The bill reduces spending for Gov. Mike Dewine's water quality initiative from $270 million to about $165 million over the next two years.
Environmentalists warn the cuts will affect the state’s ability to cut phosphorus runoff from farms into Lake Erie and the algal blooms that come from it.
"You don't just fix the problem, and then it goes away and you stop spending," Alliance for the Great Lakes CEO Joel Brammeier said. "You've got to incorporate these costs and these investments in clean water into the agricultural system so that system can continue to thrive and also enable our clean water, our Lake Erie, our Great Lakes, to thrive."
The state's H2Ohio program addresses lead service line replacement, sewer upgrades and dam removals, along with agricultural sources of phosphorus runoff, a key contributor to algal blooms in the Western Basin of Lake Erie.
"Fertilizer that gets applied every year and the fertilizer that is ... stuck in the ground, which is called legacy phosphorus, every year washes off," Brammeier said. "Some of it [goes] into surface waters, down into the tile drains and eventually into rivers or into groundwater, and all of that is constantly feeding the lake."
More than 3,200 agricultural producers were enrolled in the program in 2024, which kept an estimated 420,000 pounds of phosphorus out of Ohio's waterways according to an H2Ohio report.
"While it's small progress, there has been some evidence that the conservation paid for by H2Ohio is actually reducing a small percentage of dissolved reactive phosphorus," Brammeier said. "You're starting to see a small impact in actual pollution reduction from money that's being spent."
But to see significant improvement, Ohio and Michigan alike need to do more, Brammeier said.
"If you want an economically vibrant agriculture system to thrive, you better be able to produce safe and clean water as part of that system," he said. "That is gonna cost money. And it's gonna require smart regulation, and it is gonna require a lot of collaboration."
Reduction goals left unmet
In 2014, toxic algal blooms in the Western Basin left half-a-million Toledo residents without safe drinking water.
A year later, elected officials in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario agreed to reduce phosphorus runoff into Lake Erie by 40% by 2025. The Alliance for the Great Lakes warned two years ago that Ohio and Michigan would need to invest as much as $315 million in agricultural conservation education and practices to meet the goal.
Over the last two years, the states did not invest enough, Brammeier said.
"Unfortunately, the states and province as a group are not going to meet that goal," he said. "Which means that we're still going to see algal bloom activity in Lake Erie, some of those algal blooms being toxic, for many years to come at a level that really ... isn't acceptable for the Great Lakes in 2025 or in any year."
With the Ohio Legislature’s decision to reduce spending for the H2Ohio program, progress made so far could be threatened, Brammeier said.
"Any suggestion that we're able to spend money for a few years and then see a little bit of progress and walk away," he said. "You're just going to go right back to where you were in the early 2010s, and that is absolutely the wrong direction."
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast released Thursday predicts mild to moderate harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie this year, which is "less severe than 2024," according to the forecast.
Shifting farming practices
in 2023, farmers were hesitant to adopt environmentally conscious practices if they were uncertain about the payoffs. As of 2025, the tide is turning according to Brammeier.
"You're seeing growing enrollment in the H2 Ohio program and that's good," he said. "That indicates that there is more communication within the farming community about the value of the program and the need for the program. I think so that's that's one positive indicator."
There are various ways to reduce phosphorus runoff on farmland, from cover cropping and using less manure, to applying fertilizer beneath the crops instead of spraying.
However, H2Ohio programs geared toward farmers are voluntary, so if the money isn't there, Brammeier said, interest from farmers may wane.
