Members of the Ashland County Farmland Preservation Committee pushed to make threats from pollution and toxins more explicit in the updated plan, and to clarify how the county would prioritize impaired waterways.

Several members said the plan should explicitly capture the county’s concern about land toxification beyond septic spreading and PFAS, proposing a new bullet for 'pollutants' that would reference EPA-listed pollutants and pathogens. A committee member offered to provide suggested wording; staff agreed to insert a short sentence and add a pollutant-focused bullet under the environmental and climate issues section.

The meeting included a lengthy exchange on Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Committee members and staff noted that TMDLs are established through the state Department of Natural Resources under the federal Clean Water Act, can be costly and administratively heavy to develop, and typically target nutrient issues such as phosphorus and sediment. Several participants warned that the county lacks capacity and that many local waterways do not meet the scale typically required for a formal TMDL.

Jason (county staff) recommended that, rather than committing the farmland preservation plan to pursue TMDLs, the plan should say the county will "explore" TMDLs and other implementation mechanisms and encourage the DNR to establish TMDLs or other mitigation tools for high-priority water bodies. The committee agreed to add wording to the goals/objectives and to retain a section identifying the county’s need for external support on complex water-quality issues.

Committee members also flagged that including PFAS in the plan and attaching a supporting map helps highlight an emerging threat even where county-level data are limited. A member noted that some contaminants listed for monitoring by the EPA exceed a simple septic-spreading framing and recommended listing examples such as heavy metals, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals and PFAS in the toxification section.

The committee instructed staff to add concise, actionable language to the draft: include a pollutants/pathogens bullet, note the county will prioritize impaired waters on the 303(d) list for remedial action where feasible, and add a line about researching agricultural ordinances and implementation mechanisms to reduce water-quality degradation.