From the West Virgina Chemical
Spill to the Cincinnati Oil Spill:
How do we Protect the Ohio
River Watershed?
Status of the Ohio River 2014
By Michael C. Miller
Ohio River Basin Consortium for Research and
Education & Professor Emeritus University of
Cincinnati, Biology
League of Women Voters, Columbus, OH
April 9, 2014
Understand the Threats to Ohio
River Watershed
1. Threat of spills: chemicals, crude oil, coal
slurry, chemicals, fracking waste.
2. Invasive fish species: silver carp
3. Toxic transfers to fish: Hg, PCBs
4. Hydrofracking threat, bromide indicator
5. Nutrients and Chlorophyll Trends
6. Zebra Mussel Invasion, induction of
Microcystis.
Despite abuse, channelization, levies, and lock and dams, the Clean
Water Acts 1972 and loss of rust-belt industries, the Ohio River
Ecosystem is functional with most of the original species and
biodiversity in tact. The Ecosystem Services of the Ohio River
serve us very well. Lets Keep it Healthy.
OHIO RIVER WATERSHED in 9 states
Discharge: 308,400 ft3/s 8,733 m3/s
Watershed Area: 204,000 mi2529,000 km2
Length: 979 mi 1,575 km
The Ohio River’s major tributaries are the
Tennessee, Cumberland, Kentucky, Wabash
and Kanawha Rivers.
Allegheny R
Muskingum R.
Wabash R
GMR LMR
Sciota R
Monongehla R
White R
Licking R.
Kentucky R
Big Sandy R
Green R
Cumberland R
Tennessee R.
Tennessee R.
Kanawha R
•
•
The Ohio River Watershed
Ohio River Basin encompasses approximately 204,430 square miles (130.5 million
acres). Over 27 million people live within the basin, almost 10 percent of the U.S.
population.
Ohio River contributes over 60% of the flow in the Mississippi River at Cairo,
Illinois. There are over 400 power generation facilities (coal, oil, gas, hydropower,
biofuels, nuclear and wind) in the basin. (ORB website)
Discharge Controls Ohio River
Ecosystem Filter Feeders on
Algae.
Flow
Nutrients
Light
ALGAL
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Paddlefish
• Aulocoseira
Silver Carp
Zebra
Mussel
Filtering
• MicrocystisA
Zooplankton
Net Spinning
caddisflies
Simplified Food Web Ohio River
Largemouth Bass
Hybrid Stripe Bass
Shovelhead Catfish
Sauger
Small Bass
Yellow Perch
FW Drum
Sunfish
Gizzard Shad
Skipjack
Herring
Emerald
Shiner
Plankton Zooplankton, Algae
Zebra Mussel
Deep-bodied
Suckers Carp
Catfish
Benthic
Invertebrates
Fine Particulate Organic Matter
Spring of 2014 has more spills than normal as well as chronic pollutants
Accidental Spills
Oil Spill
Diesel Spill
Nutrients N & P
Endocrine Disrupters
Chlorodane,DDT
Coal Slurry Spill
Hg Methyl Mercury
I. SPILLS: Recent Hazards to Ohio River Health
Ohio River Watershed is Industrial
1.
2.
3.
4.
Loss of black coal pond slurry and washing agents 2014
Loss of crude oil from pipeline break 2014
Loss of river side tanks of Ammonia Nitrate 2000
Loss of Jim Bean Whiskey 1996..
5. Chronic loss of coal dust and Calcium Carbonate dust and
construction aggregate at loading unloading facilities.
6. Chromium spill with a chemical precipitant in Ohio R 1999
Over 230 million tons of cargo are
transported on the Ohio River each
year. Coal and other energy
products make up approximately
70 percent of the commerce in
barge tows.
Coal Mining Slurry Spills
• The event is the third time in less than two months
that West Virginia has experienced a coal-related
pollutant spill into its waters. On Feb. 11, 2014, a
pipe break at a Patriot Coal preparation site spewed
more than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into a
waterway near Charleston. Runoff from melting
snow overran sediment control ponds at a slurry
impoundment, sending polluted water into a creek.
Coal slurry contains a variety of
substances that are likely more
toxic than Crude MCHM &
polyethylene glycol. It contains
heavy metals, like iron,
manganese, aluminum and
selenium.
Elk River Spill of Coal Washing Agent
Water quality samples collected at Greater Cincinnati Water Works' (GCWW) intakes show
the Elk River Spill has passed through the Cincinnati area. The chemical, identified as
4-methylcyclohexane methanol, is not detectable by normal water sample for organics.
GCWW has been collecting Ohio River water samples and carefully monitoring the Ohio
River since the chemical spilled into the Elk River last week near Charleston, West
Virginia. The compound that spilled into the Elk River is used to wash and prepare coal
for sale. The chemical can cause vomiting, dizziness, rashes and diarrhea if ingested or if
a person comes in contact with it, according to the American Association of Poison
Control Centers. The GCWW developed a GCMS protocol to detect it at 4 ppb and a
human smell protocol to its sweet smell sensitive to 1 ppb. With EPA, they monitored the
plume down river. As a result, Greater Cincinnati Water Works closed it intakes from
4:00am until 2:00pm http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2014/02/coal-slurry-spill-west-virginia-pollutes-fields-creek/
•
http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/water/news/west-virginia-chemical-spill/
Oil Spill Oak Glen
Nature Preserve, Great
Parks Hamilton County.
Fifty year old Sunoco-owned
Mid-Valley Pipeline leaks
pipeline leaks (20,000 gallons of
crude oil Friday to Tues. into a
wetland preserve. Removal will
require a road and excavation
of contaminated soils (March
18-21, 2014).
• Oikl
Oil Spill Cleanup Cincinnati,
OH. Oil water reached Great
Miami River Friday 4 Apr after
3” of rain. Pipe patched. Oil
flowed down stream to old
gravel pit pond. Oiled wildlife:
Snapping turtle, salamanders
migrating to water to breed.
Tankers of oil contaminated
waer were pumped from the
ponds.
Sunoco Pipeline Leaks
2014,2009,2008,2005
• This is at least the third time in the last six years that oil has leaked from
the pipeline in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In February
2009, cold temperatures caused a leak of eight barrels (or 248 gallons) of
crude oil in Burlington. The spill caused $33,900 in property damage.
• A much larger spill occurred in Burlington in October 2008, after
construction crews struck the line, sending 189,000 gallons of crude oil
gushing. Eighty homes in the area were evacuated. Some of the oil
ended up in the sanitary sewer system and in Gunpowder Creek. After
that spill, Sunoco Logistics officials said the line carried about 238,000
barrels per day to refineries in Ohio.
• In January 2005, the same pipeline ruptured near Carrollton, sending
260,000 gallons of oil into the Kentucky River. The slick fouled a large
section of the Kentucky River, killed some aquatic life and forced
Louisville officials to take precautions with drinking water from the Ohio.
• Heaven Hill Distillery Fire in November 17 1996. Seven warehouses
at Heaven Hill containing 90,000 barrels of whisky burned out of control,
fanned by wind gusts of up to 75 mph. The barrels contained about 45
gallons of bourbon. As the warehouses collapsed, bourbon poured out.
Jim Beam will pay $26,732.33 to the state to compensate for an
estimated 19,000 fish that died when bourbon seeped into Withrow
Creek and the Salt River, tribs to Kentucky R. Seventeen species of fish,
including largemouth bass, catfish, paddlefish, sunfish and drum, were
killed following the blaze. The fish were killed by a combination of
exposure to a lethal concentration of alcohol and by a lack of oxygen in
the water that occurs after microorganisms use up too much of the
oxygen.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/979415/post
Ammonia Nitrate Fertilizer Spill,
Cincinnati 2000
• Southside River Rail officials more than doubled the estimated amount
of the liquid Ammonia Nitrate solution that spilled when a holding tank
burst Saturday afternoon on Southside Avenue along the Ohio River (Jan.
9, 2000). The company also said the cause may have been a structure
failure in the tank's welding. The company said Thursday as much as
990,000 gallons of the fertilizer was in the tank when it failed, Southside
spokeswoman Jody Mangeot said. About 108,000 gallons were
eventually recovered, but 882,000 gallons of the solution were lost.
Wednesday afternoon, officials at the Louisville Water Co. began noticing
traces of ammonia nitrate, likely from the Cincinnati spill.
• Like the ELK RIVER SPILL containment was not up to code to hold the
contents of storage tanks.
http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/01/14/loc_fertilizer_spills.html
Elkem Metals Company, L.P., spilled metal coagulant
loaded with toxic levels of Chromium on the northern
bank of the Ohio River, about four miles southwest of
Marietta, Ohio Sept-Oct 1999.
• Both zebra and native mussels were directly exposed by
filtering particulates from contaminated water near the
bottom of the Ohio River. Fish species, primarily freshwater
drum which are known to feed on mussels, were then
exposed by consumption of the contaminated mussels.
Documented injuries within a five-mile reach of the Ohio
River from release of hazardous substances by a ferro-alloy
manufacturing facility resulting in high sediment Chromium.
Fish (estimated over 8,600 killed), including freshwater drum,
sauger, hybrid striped bass, channel catfish, bluegill, walleye,
gizzard shad, and suckers. Freshwater mussels estimated
over 990,000 killed in 26 species (some endangered),
Gastropods (snails--estimated over 12,000,000 killed)
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/documents/ohioriverrpeafinal.pdf
II. Invasive Fish
Hypothesis: Invasive species will expand a function of
food density, especially eutrophic waters.
Most invasive species feed near the bottom of the
food chain: benthivores and planktivores.
Most invasive species do not have a predator that
could potentially control their growth.
Most invasive species enter an ‘empty food niche’.
Some exotic fish are planted for fishermen: Hybrid
stripers, Saugeye.
Invasive fish are pervasive in the lower and middle
Ohio River.
•
•
Silver carp have moved to
Cincinnati. GMR, LMR, and
Licking are likely plankton
rich
targets
The discovery of the silver carp this week at the mouth of the Great Miami
River in far western Hamilton County (RM 491) is a first in the Cincinnati
region, and biologists say their arrival is bad news for everyone. They say the
carp not only will spread along the Ohio River, but up tributaries such as the
Great Miami, the Licking River and others.
The carp invasion joins a growing list of foreign species, such as the zebra
mussel and the emerald ash borer, that have wreaked havoc on land and in
water since coming to America.
•
Silver carp, one of several varieties commonly referred to as Asian carp,
arrived in North America decades ago when catfish farmers imported
them to eat algae in their ponds. Thanks to floods and poor oversight,
the carp escaped and made their way into rivers and lakes throughout
the United States.
• They moved steadily up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for years,
infesting tributaries and lakes along the way. until now, scientists
thought they’d only made it as far as Louisville on the Ohio.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120629/NEWS/306290108&Ref=AR Jun. 29, 2012
Map Distribution
2010
Large populations of Asian Carp are
found in both Kentucky and
Barkley lakes in western
Kentucky, and most backwater
lakes in western Kentucky
associated with the Mississippi
and Ohio rivers.
These species have also been found in
most of their tributaries including the
Tennessee, Cumberland, Green and
Kentucky rivers along with several
others. Recently, Asian Carp have
been found in the tailwaters of
Taylorsville Lake (Salt River), Green
River Lake (Green River) and are
assumed to be in the Barren River
Lake tailwaters (Barren River).
Silver Carp Moving up
River to Little Miami.
•
Ronny Hopkins, a commercial fisherman
from Ledbetter who fishes Kentucky Lake
and Lake Barkley in Western Kentucky.
Hopkins said he has caught 36,000
Jeff Thomas, the manager of
biological programs for the Ohio pounds of carp in six hours.
Read more here:
River Valley Water Sanitation
http://www.kentucky.com/2013/01/01/2461567/large-asian-carpjump-breed-quickly.html#storylink=cpy
Commission in Cincinnati,
discovered the first school of silver
carp in Ohio waters two weeks
ago. The silver carp were easy to
spot at the mouth of the Little
Miami River near Cincinnati. They
were jumping all over the place, an
action provoked by vibrations of a
boat's outboard motor.
By D'Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer
on July 13, 2012 at 6:01 P
Big-headed Carp
is on its way
upstream below
Louisville
AP file photo
• This 47-lb. bighead Asian carp was caught on the Ohio
River in 2007 by a Macedonia angler. Scientists say it's not
uncommon to find individual Asian carp in the Ohio, but
that a breeding and thriving population has not made it
past the falls and dam at Louisville, Ky.
• We caught two small ones in the Mississippi River during
the 2003 flood above St. Louis.
II. Toxics in fish
• Toxics organic compounds in fish are often
concentrated in lipids: DDT, Chlordane, Methyl
mercury. Many chlorinated compounds are not
degraded by microorganisms and persist for
decades: DDT, Chlordane, PCBs.
• Toxic metals are taken up as functional groups that
behave physiologically like essential elements.
• Toxic materials enter from point sources (PCBs, Pb,
Cd) and aerial distribution (Hg, Sulfate).
• ORSANCO finds all 981 miles restrict fish
consumption (2012)
Fattest fish are paddlefish, carp and
catfish. Predators have lowest lipids
Old Insecticide is lipid soluble and
mimics % Lipids in fish species
Methyl mercury ought to be lipid soluble, but is
obviously high in predators & low in fattest fish
Cadmium metal appears highest in bottom
feeding fish & some predators but is 1/10th
that of Mercury in the Ohio River
Year
III. FRACKING BRINE RUNOFF
• Build out of fracking wells in Muskingum and
Sciota River Watersheds may lead to a episodic
or chronic contamination of Bromide in Ohio.
• Danger signs of Bromide, Br-,seen in the upper
Ohio River watersheds draining the more
mature gas play in Pennsylvania.
• Lets look at the effect of watershed wide
extraction of coal in the Big Sandy as an
example of what may happen in a mature play.
• Horizontal drilled
Hydrofracked wells
in Marcellus Shale
for dry gas and in
Utica shales under it
for ‘wet gas’. Shales
underlie OH, PA, WV,
and NY. Much of the
frack fluids and
produced brine is
disposed of in Class
II Injection wells in
Ohio.
Potential >168 trillion cu ft.
Alaska = 26 trillion cu ft
Oil/Gas Wells
OHIO
• Marcellus and
Utica shales are an
under-developed
play with only 810
horizontal drilled
wells (1202 permits
granted), but bulid
out will generate
10,000 wells. We
have 64,000 active
wells in Ohio now.
Where will the
fracking waste go?
Ohio’s Class II
Injection Wells. From a
volume-injected perspective, 1.480
and 1.813 million barrels of waste
fluids were received in and out of
district, respectively, with averages
of 3,096 and 3,793 barrels per well
for a total of 35 million barrels 20102013 (1.47 B gallons)
Class II Waste Injection
wells in Ohio
PA has 6, OH has
187 wells that earn
$0.20/bbl for
imported waste and
$0.05/bbl for local
Ohio waste.
Should USGS allow shipment Marcellus/Utica
brine by barge to Texas and Oklahoma where
many injection wells are located? Why?
Advantages: 1) NIMBY : Ship it to
someone else.
• 2) Takes transport off Ohio roads
& rail.
• 3) Eliminates risk of injection well
accidents, quakes or later
eruptions.
Disadvantages: 1) Allows
unrestrained development of
PA,OH,WV shales.
• 2) Increases risk of spillage by
storage and two transfers on and
off trucks or rail and on and off
barges.
• 3) Increases risk of barge sinking
and spilling waste in Ohio &
Mississippi Rivers.
Fracking-Produced Brine has been disposed
of in Ohio River Tributaries. Brine is enriched
with Bromide as a marker.
• Puzzled officials have ordered research and haven't pinpointed a
cause -although many suspect the natural gas drilling industry is
responsible. Bromides are from seawater, and that is where the gas
deposits exist, deep underground where the gas wells tap ancient
seabeds under modern Ohio. Bromide is a chemical salt that forms
substances called trihalomethanes when raw water is chlorinated and
treated by a a drinking water plant like the Cincinnati Water Works.”
• Documents from ORSANCO, a multi-state agency in Cincinnati that
monitors water quality in the Ohio River, show bromide levels have
soared, which is spooking officials. Earlier this year, the agency was
told: "Bromide levels in the River are increasing, with some recent
high concentrations four to five times higher than the levels found
several years ago. Bromide levels have put several utilities close to
exceeding EPA's disinfection criteria." In June, ORSANCO ordered,
"Research should continue with an emphasis on bromide." No
source of the bromide spike is identified, but the rise in Ohio River
levels appears to coincide with a boom in natural gas drilling that
began in 2008.
http://thebellwetherdaily.blogspot.com/2011/12/ohio-river-is-increasingly-contaminated.html
Percent brominated TriHaloMethanes
in OR Drinking water vs water conc. Br.
ORSANCO 2014
Bromide will change drinking water disinfection for the Ohio River drinking
water utilities as trihalomethanes become problematic.
•
IV. NUTRIENTS and RIVER
CHEMISTRY
N:P:C are used in a molar ratio of 14:1:106.
PO4
cycles only in water. Nitrogen cycles through
water and gaseous cycles. Gaseous N2 can be
fixed biologically by cyanobacteria, like
Anabaena & Aphanizomenon.
• Availability of nutrients to algae is a function of
light availability & turbulence, both controlled by
discharge in rivers. A high discharge the turbidity
restricts light penetration and algal growth.
July-Nov.
July-Nov.
ORSANCO
Median = 3.5 ug chlor/liter
Average = 5.9 ug chlor/liter
Conclusion: OR may be P-limited
at low summer discharge.
• Point source TP is used biologically in the
estuary at the mouth of big tributaries at low
discharge. The Ohio River mainstem is Plimited at low flows supporting only 5 ug
algal chlorophyll a/liter.
• Algal mass did not change between 20002007 and little change from Pittsburgh to
Cairo in any given week.
• Algae are light limited by turbidity driven by
current suspended silts and clays.
V. Zebra Mussels
Dreissena Polymorpha
The Zebra mussels were transported to the Ohio
River by barges from Lake Michigan down the
Illinois River in 1993.
The zebra mussels have a planktonic larvae and do
not use a fish host. They expanded to maximum
numbers of 3-year olds in 1997 & 1998 and have not
be a problem since. Drum & ducks have learned to
eat them attached to surfaces.
In first Year mussels reach 1 cm and sexual maturity
and can filter enough to clear the water, but cause
blooms of Microcystis aeruginosa which they will
not consume by late August and Sept.
Zebra Mussels in the Ohio River
• Young-of-the-year settled on 5 Dendy Plate
samplers(6.5 ft^2) reflected the filtering
intensity on the plankton in the river, being
seriously high in 1998 and 1999. Since then the
young survival were highest in 2002 and 2010.
• Zebra mussels sort their ingested food, expelling
cyanobacteria, especially Microcystis and
Lyngbya in their pseudofeces. This removes
good digestable diatoms allowing only
Cyanobacteria to dominate in late summer.
What has not changed in the Ohio River?
Water Quality PCA
Algal dominance by Aulocoseira granulata
since the 1950’s when the river was
grossly polluted by industrial and
untreated sewage. Water qualtiy has
improved since with sewage plants &
industry loss.
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
In August and September 2010, algal blooms were
reported in both the upper and lower Ohio River.
Drinking water utilities reported taste and odor issues
and filter clogging, which adds to the cost of treating
water. The taste and oder algae are dominated by
Microcystis aeruginosa, which produces a
hepatotoxin, Microcystin. Microcystis dominates
when zebra mussel filtering is high & they get bigger
in warm, low flow years like 2007 & 2010.
Diatom
Aulocoseira
Cyanobacteria
Microcystis
Zooplankton Base of foodchain for many fish
• Zooplankton in Ohio River are more diverse than
any surface waters in the basin, but the diversity
of larger, slower developing species is restricted
by flow (wash out rate) and was highest in
backwater estuaries.
Diaphanosma
•
Population growth rates of Bosmina were the most consistent of
all taxa followed by cyclopoids. Bosmina population growth rates
were negatively correlated with turbidity (R2 = 0.392), and
Daphnia with discharge, but only slightly (R2 = 0.397). Cyclopoids
correlated negatively with Keratella population growth rates (R2
= 0.371), a sign of biotic interactions taking place. Furthermore,
Ohio River zooplankton community assemblages appear altered
by navigation dams within the same navigational pool (upstream
and downstream sites
Bosmina
Keratella
Polyarthra
Daphnia
Cyclops
Great River Fish of the Ohio R.
Blue Catfish
Shovelnose Sturgeon
Goldeneye/Mooneye
Paddlefish
Alligator Gar
Extirpated OR
River Darter
Percent Tolerant Species
Number of native species
Demise of Steel
and Clean Water
Act (1972) have
reduce tolerant
species and
enhanced native
species in OR.
carp
white sucker
•High dams have
increased lake species
and carp dominates
biomass, but only 4
species of 105 have
been extirpated Detection
of Temporal Trends in Ohio River
Fish Assemblages Based on
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Lockchamber Surveys
JEFF A. THOMAS AND ERICH B. EMERY
FRANK H. MCCORMIC KAmerican Fisheries Society Symposium 00:000–000, 2004©(1957–2001)
2004 by the American Fisheries Society
• At the turn of the
Mussels Threatened
century, the Ohio
a complex lifecycle, its larvae attach
River Basin was home With
parasitically to the gills or fins of a particular
species or a small set of fish species. They
to 127 of the 297
may be threatened by water quality, siltation,
freshwater mussel
zebra mussels, or loss of fish host ar right time
of year.
species native to
North America.
• 11 mussel species are
now extinct, and 46
others are now
classified as
endangered or
species of concern
(USFWS).
Ohio River & Gulf Hypoxia
Because of a rainfall gradient
from East to West, the Ohio River
contributes 60% of the water to
the Mississippi River at St. Louis,
more than the Missouri & Upper
Miss. R. combined.
Although the concentrations of
NO3-N is less in the Ohio R., the
N-load (and P-load) of the Ohio is
greatest of the three .
In drought yr 2012, 58,100
metric tons of N enter Gulf
from Miss. R.
Most of the Nitrate is
discharged with spring rains
in April & May from
agricultural row crops (Corn,
Soy Bean)
GULF OF MEXICO HYPOXIA
The largest dead zone, also called a hypoxic zone, measured to date occurred in
2002 encompassing more than 8,400 square miles. The average size of the dead
zone over the past five years has been 5,684 square miles. During the 2012 drought
year the zone measured approximately 2,889 square miles, an area slightly larger
than Delaware. By PoliticalNews.me 21 February 2014
Washington, D.C. – Bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Rob Portman
(R-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research
and Control Amendments Act of 2013, passed the United States Senate
2013
http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/research/Shelfwide%20Cruises/all_cruises.asp
http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/Overview/hypoxia_flash.asp
CONCLUSIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Proliferation of plankton feeding silver and big-headed carp could change
zooplankton species and reproductive success of the planktonic zebra mussel
veligers.
Build out of fracking wells could lead to watershed contamination with
Bromide & TDS in produced water, affecting water treatment up and down the
Ohio River by producing Tribromomethanes in chlorinated drinking water.
Toxic compounds are behavior and reproductive success in many fish
species, in addition to reducing safe consumption to one fish meal a week.
Nutrient loading coupled with increased peak flows and low flows with
climate change could lead to algal biomass & species shifts and enlarge Gulf
of Mexico hypoxia zone.
Zebra mussel density is now controlled by predators on the young tender
mussels in late autumn and winter (fish, ducks, geese, muskrat) keeping
densities low.
Accidental Spills are common and likely to get commoner if USGS allows
fracking brine to be transferred to and from barges and transported to
reinjection sites along the Ohio/Mississippi River.
Algae, zooplankton, and fish have not changed, much except for introduced
exotics. River is very robust.
Ohio River Ecosystem Services are
still functional and critical to us.
Ecosystems provide "services" that enhance our
needs: They reduce our costs because they…….
• moderate weather extremes and their impacts
• mitigate drought and floods
• cycle and move nutrients
• protect stream and river channels and coastal shores
from erosion
• detoxify and decompose wastes .
• maintain biodiversity to keep ecosystems functioning.
• contribute to climate stability.
• purify and provide clean air and water.
The Ohio River Ecosystem provides
ecosystem services to us are largely
unchanged
Many human activities disrupt, impair or reengineer ecosystems
every day including:
• runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes
• pollution of land, water, and air resources with toxics or
pathogens.
• introduction of non-native species like silver & big headed carp
• overharvesting fisheries like large piscivores or mussels.
• destruction of wetlands to treat & slow flood waters.
• erosion of soils from barren river banks & row crop agriculture.
• deforestation removes evaporative cooling and increases runoff.
• urban sprawl makes impervious surface, sewage, toxic products.
http://www.esa.org/ecoservices/comm/body.comm.fact.ecos.htm
Fish Index Used by OEPA shows improvement
every 10-15 years in lower Great Miami River
EWWH
WWH
Large Rivers in Ohio
are Healthy today
and improving.
Meets
CWA
standard
Big Rivers in
Ohio are largely
clean by 2000.
LMR is 100%
blue by 2007.
OEPA evaluates fish,
macroivertebrates,
water and sediment
chemistry and
habitate quality for
fish every 10-15
years.
What can you do?
• Slow and regulate fracking development with
zoning and traffic volume laws locally. Support
well head tax on gas & oil extraction.
• Hold water in rain barrels, rain gardens or ponds
1-2 days. Plant trees to shade, evaporate water
and sequester nutrients in you yard and parks.
Support watershed level planning.
• Do not transport exotic species in boats or bait
buckets between rivers and lakes.
• Support low till, no till farming. Eat green
organic foods and less red meat. Put CAFO
regulation back into the OEPA.