by Jessica McKenzie

Federal agencies and state governments are spending millions on anaerobic digesters to wring renewable energy from animal poop. But critics say “cow power” from factory farms is neither clean nor green.

At a glance, anaerobic digesters seem like the perfect solution to one of society’s many messes: They take the waste from cows, pigs, and...

The state of Ohio appears ready to institute something environmental groups have been clamoring for since Toledo’s 2014 algae-driven water crisis: a Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL, for western Lake Erie.

TMDLs are so-called “pollution diets” for ecosystems. They are designed to track down specific sources of pollution, and hold polluters accountable. In the case of Ohio’s agricultural industry, a TMDL would, in...

The Center for Public Integrity - Jamie Smith Hopkins, Environment Editor and Senior Reporter

“It is a profound injustice that the citizens of Toledo have had to clean up a mess that other people have made,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said in an interview.

An advisory panel for a U.S.-Canada commission is calling for government agencies in the Great Lakes region to...

The Center for Public Integrity - Jamie Smith Hopkins, Environment Editor and Senior Reporter

OREGON, Ohio — It was sunny and 82 degrees, a perfect August day for a trip to the public beach just outside Toledo. But hardly anyone was here. And no one was swimming. “DANGER,” warned a red sign posted in the sand near the edge of Lake...

VPR News - John Dillon

Laurel Casey counts herself as a casualty of farm pollution.

Her small, lakeshore house in Bridport has been damaged by runoff from the farm fields above her. She said she’s had trouble renting out a camp on the property because the bay just feet away is often choked with potentially toxic blue-green algae....

By Laura Johnston, cleveland.com -

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The cities of Toledo and Oregon, as well as surrounding Lucas County, want to stop manure from causing harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie.

So they’re asking the state to require two proposed confined-animal feeding operations -- with a total of 14,400 swine in the...

Toledo Blade - Tom Henry

Elected officials in the Toledo area have taken a new approach in their ongoing battle against large livestock operations that contribute to Lake Erie’s harmful algae blooms.

They’re asking the Ohio Department of Agriculture to require that all manure from such facilities get treated to the standards of human-made sewage before it’s spread on fields as fertilizer.

Toledo...