Ohio farms have too much manure after wet fall

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state's streams are at risk for pollution if Ohio farmers use the cold weather months to reduce their smelly stockpiles of manure left over from a wet fall that made fertilizing difficult, officials said.

The concern is that farmers who were kept from spreading manure on their fields amid the fall's record rainfall will spread it over frozen, snow-covered fields this winter, when the animal waste could easily be washed into waterways by a quick thaw or a rainstorm, The Columbus Dispatch reported (http://bit.ly/xEsfz3 ).

"We go to two dozen to three dozen of these pollutions a year, easily," said Ken Fitz, a wildlife administrator with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

The manure runoff threatens fish and contains phosphorous that feeds the toxic, blue-green algae seen on Ohio lakes including Lake Erie and Grand Lake St. Marys, the state's largest inland lake. The algae blooms are a peril not only to health but also to the state's tourism and fishing industries.

The state's farm animals produce more than 17 million tons of manure each year, according to state and federal estimates. In 2011, Ohio saw 39 manure spills into streams, including four that occurred during winter months, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency records show.

Kevin Elder, who heads the state's Livestock Environmental Permitting Program, said he believes the state got a lucky break of relatively warm weather over the last two weeks that allowed Ohio's large "megafarms" to put much of their manure onto fields.

The state has 185 megafarms with state permits. However, Elder noted that another 30,000 or so smaller livestock farms in Ohio lack oversight, meaning they can spread manure whenever they want.

The Ohio State University Extension urged farmers to take voluntarily measures to protect waterways, such as keeping manure at least 200 feet from stream banks and spreading it on limited acreage if the ground is frozen.