The Ohio legislature knows that you're concerned about the algae blooms that threaten our state's drinking water sources, so they're rushing to pass legislation to address solutions. But until they recognize a major culprit to our water pollution — factory farms — and that drinking water all over the state is impacted, the Clean Dirty Lake Erie Bill will never achieve its supposed goals. Tell your state legislators that they must protect our drinking water by reining in factory farm pollution.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked you to take action on the Ohio Senate Bill that they're calling the "Clean Lake Erie Bill," meant to address the hazardous algae blooms that left half a million Toledoans without water last summer. The senate has since passed the bill without any significant improvements. Indeed, the bill got worse. And now the Ohio House has introduced their own legislation — but this bill is just as bad, so we're calling it the "Dirty Lake Erie Bill."

In addition to these two worthless bills, Governor Kasich has included language said to address the algae blooms in his 2,783 page budget bill. But guess what? None of the current bills include the necessary oversights in agricultural policy to avoid another drinking water crisis. Tell our leaders that factory farms must be held accountable!

We don't have the luxury here in Ohio to pass half-measures for factory farm runoff pollution. This is the legislature's third attempt at dealing with the hazardous algae blooms. First, they refused to include any tighter standards on manure spreading, which not only exacerbates algae blooms but can increase the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Then they attempted to pass voluntary reforms in a huge bill at the end of last year that included so many handouts to industries in Ohio that we called it "The Political Contributor Holiday Gift Bag Act of 2014." Thankfully, that bill failed.

Now, legislators are making the changes to their algae bloom bills that Big Ag lobbies for, ignoring the many citizens that were impacted and the advocacy groups that are all asking for meaningful reform. And it's no surprise that many of those same legislators get significant campaign funding from the Big Ag lobby. But, the time for kowtowing is over.

What will Ohio legislators say if their changes don't work to stop the blooms? Will they tell us again that "this was just a first step," like they told us last year when they refused to include manure as a big part of the problem? Tell your state legislators that they won't solve the algae bloom problem by only listening to the very industry that helped cause it.

We have the right to clean water, and we know what is causing the hazardous algae blooms. We know there are many contributing factors, but factory farms are a major culprit. There are plenty of examples statewide of healthy farms operating with minimal water contamination problems, and it's time Ohio took their cue to rein in factory farm poo-llution. Take action today to prevent any more drinking water crises.