The green muck has been a common sight at Grand Lake St. Marys.
"We have been coming here for like 20 years and the water has always been pretty green, we thought." said tourist Randal Starlin.
This summer the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency detected high levels of toxic bacteria from dead blue green algae.
Now the communities surrounding the lake are searching for solutions and offering their own opinions.
"Farmers' chemicals and so forth," said one fisherman.
"Our problem stems from the water run off," added a local hotel owner.
Farmers are bearing the brunt of the blame.
"It is easy to blame the farmer if you say 85 or 90 percent of the watershed comes from farmland." said dairy farmer Lou Brown.
But the truth is, Brown has implemented many techniques to keep his runoff out of the lake's creeks and streams.
"By using best management practices though we can try to minimize the amount going into the water," added Brown.
Some practices include installing wetlands to slow and filter run off, not tilling or plowing the soil, and using 200 foot long grass strips as buffers to keep run off from roadside ditches.
The last technique, sacrifices 34 acres of land on Brown's farm and it is all to benefit the environment.
"We're interested in passing this farm from one generation to the next. Somebody has to be back here doing a good job now or the next generation will not have something to enjoy." said Brown.
One microcystin expert said it's not just farmers, everyone bears some responsibility.
"It's a combination of agriculture, industry, and municipalities." said Wright State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Wayne Carmichael.
Lou Brown is part of the solution, but community members want the state's help.
"We need to have the state step up," said a St. Marys businessman.
"We have some initiatives we're working on, nothing we have finalized right now." said Ohio EPA Spokesperson Dina Pierce.
