College of Law

Combatting harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie topic of March 16 and 30 workshops

March 6, 2012

Best practices and legal tools to combat harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie will be the focus of two workshops, on March 16 in Toledo and March 30 in Columbus, sponsored by The University of Toledo College of Law and Ohio Sea Grant. 

The workshops will be held Friday, March 16, in the Law Center on the University of Toledo campus, and Friday, March 30, at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Assembly Center in Columbus. Both workshops begin at 8:30 a.m. with a complimentary breakfast and end at 12:15 p.m. The half-day workshops are free and open to the public.

Harmful algal blooms (HABs), toxin-producing algae that form during the summer, are an increasingly severe problem in Lake Erie. Triggered primarily by excess phosphorus, they adversely impact aquatic life and human health as well as recreation, tourism, fishing and property values.

During the workshops, experts from law, science and government will address ways to reduce phosphorus loading to Lake Erie and its tributaries from key Ohio sources.
         
“These workshops provide a unique interdisciplinary approach to solving the harmful algal blooms problem,” said Kenneth Kilbert, Toledo Law professor and director of its Legal Institute of the Great Lakes. “Anyone interested in the health of Lake Erie should benefit by attending.”
 
The workshops are partially funded by a grant from The National Sea Grant Law Center.

More information and the workshop agenda available here.