Federal action could be on the horizon if high nutrient levels continue to show up in ditches, rivers and streams that make up the Western Lake Erie Basin.
While Indiana is making progress to reduce runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus, one agriculture official warned that "the long arm of the EPA" could come down in a big way if nothing is done to stop the current trend.
While there are many possible causes for the high nitrogen and phosphorus levels in the watershed, Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, said EPA is looking very closely at agriculture.
He urged farmers to adopt conservation practices like cover crops, filter strips and grass swales, in an effort to improve water quality in the region.
"Let's get after that in a major way, or we're going to have our head handed to us," he said, speaking to farmers last Thursday during the annual Northeast Purdue Ag Center Field Day in Columbia City.
EPA is already regulating farming activity in the Chesapeake Bay region of Maryland. Crop farmers there face what's known as a TMDL, or Total Maximum Daily Load.
McKinney said a TMDL is a cap on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that can be applied to crop fields.
In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the EPA tells farmers how much fertilizer they can use and when they can apply it.
McKinney said that's not how most farmers prefer to do business.
"We just missed, by a hair, the long arm of EPA putting a Total Maximum Daily Load on that Western Lake Erie Basin, which includes everything going up the Maumee (River)," he said.
He said Indiana staved off any federal action because of its data showing nutrient retention through cover crops and other conservation practices.
"If it weren't for the data that we at ISDA had, and a little bit from Michigan and Ohio, they would have put that (TMDL) on," McKinney said.
The data which McKinney referred to comes from a computer model that allows experts to calculate nutrient retention in area farm fields.
Every time a local NRCS or SWCD worker installs a grass swale or a filter strip, or assists in planting cover crops, that information is documented and plugged into the computer model.
Using that model, McKinney said ISDA can calculate how much nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment are retained in the soil and ultimately kept from flowing into waterways.
The ISDA official said his agency is working with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to establish a baseline so ISDA can show a decreasing amount of sediment spilling into the Maumee River.
Indiana is a bright spot for cover crop use, ranking second nationally.
"We're very proud that we're No. 2, and we've got to keep that going," McKinney said.
Water quality issues are a serious issue in Northeast Indiana.
"We need to step up and address it in a voluntary manner on our own, and we can do it," McKinney said.
"If we don't, we're going to see the very same things happen as happened in the Chesapeake Bay."