An age-old question, but one that looms larger for western Lake Erie: Is livestock manure a valuable fertilizer or a form of waste being spread on crop fields?

Peter Hess, a University of Toledo distinguished engineering alumnus, had no clear answers in a special lecture he gave Thursday afternoon to about 50 people inside UT’s Nitschke Engineering Building.

But he said it has become trickier for the agricultural industry to apply manure across northwest Ohio since the advent of large livestock operations began in earnest 25 years ago in this part of the country, simply because there are many more millions of gallons of it now.

The most important thing is what will happen in the future as Earth’s climate continues to warm Lake Erie and storm events become more frequent and intense, said

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