The Lucas County engineer’s office joins the Ohio Lake Erie Commission and the Ohio EPA in asking the public for comments on the proposed removal of the beneficial use impairment (BUI) for restrictions on fish and wildlife consumption within the Maumee Area of Concern (AOC).
Located in northwest Ohio, the Maumee AOC is comprised of 787 square miles, including several watersheds draining to Lake Erie, making it one of the largest AOCs in the U.S.
What is a beneficial use impairment or BUI? Designations given by the International Joint Commission for the Maumee AOC, they officially recognize various examples of significant environmental degradation.
As restoration and cleanup projects make progress, monitoring is conducted at the site to determine the level of recovery in environmental health, and if and when sufficient recovery is reached, BUIs can be designated as “removed.”
Written comments will be accepted through August 5, and can be emailed to Cherie Blair, Ohio EPA Maumee AOC coordinator at Cherie. Blair@epa.ohio. gov.
The Ohio Lake Erie Commission and Ohio EPA recommend removing the “BUI because conditions now meet restoration criteria that include fish and wildlife consumption in all waters of the Maumee AOC. This means the fish and wildlife meet safe consumption thresholds used by the Ohio Department of Health in the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory.
“The potential removal in a Beneficial Use Impairment in the Maumee Area of Concern is a significant milestone toward giving our region a higher quality of life and a better place to live,” Lucas County Engineer Mike Pniewski said. “Sustained funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and from local partners allowed the projects to make this moment possible. I look forward to seeing more progress in the coming years.”
In general, safe consumption for Maumee River AOC streams and Lake Erie fish are one meal per month, but may be more or less stringent, depending on the species and location. Consult the advisory for more information.
A summary of the proposed recommendation is available on the Ohio EPA website.
This beneficial use impairment is the second BUI to be recommended for removal from the initial 10 BUIs listed for the Maumee Area of Concern. The first one, Added Costs to Industry or Agriculture, was removed in 2015.
