07/06/2021

DeWine Announces Expansion of the H2Ohio Program

Ten new counties were added to the program

Today, Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Director Dorothy Pelanda announced H2Ohio's farmer incentive program is expanding into 10 additional counties in the Western Lake Erie Basin.

The program, which offers funding to farmers who implement proven conservation practices that limit agricultural phosphorus runoff from fertilizer, is now open to farmers in Crawford, Erie, Huron, Marion, Ottawa, Richland, Sandusky, Seneca, Shelby and Wyandot counties, bringing the total number of counties eligible for the program to 24.

Ohio's new bipartisan operating budget, passed by the Ohio General Assembly and signed by DeWine last week, provides $120 million over the next two years to continue and expand funding to farmers who work to reduce phosphorus runoff. Phosphorus runoff is the primary factor behind algal blooms on Lake Erie.

Farmers in the original 14 participating counties, including Williams, Fulton, Lucas, Defiance, Henry, Wood, Paulding, Putnam, Hancock, Van Wert, Allen, Hardin, Mercer and Auglaize, will continue receiving incentives during the program's second year and have already enrolled more than one million acres of cropland in the program.

Virtual meetings will be held later this month for farmers in the newly eligible counties to provide more information on H2Ohio's conservation programs. More information on these meetings is available at h2.ohio.gov.

DeWine launched H2Ohio in November 2019 as a long-term, data-driven water quality plan to reduce harmful algal blooms, improve wastewater infrastructure, and address lead contamination in Ohio. The initiative is a collaboration involving ODA, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Lake Erie Commission and other environmental, agricultural and educational partners.

It is the first comprehensive state program that addresses all aspects of water quality.