A: Right, it was about water and our current and future problems related to it — water contamination, droughts, the availability of clean water, and the things we can do from an individual and community perspective to address those things and be prepared for the future.
Q: What sort of response did you get?
A: Very positive. A number of people said it really made them think about water differently.
Q: How do you think most people do think about water, generally?
A: I think most of us take it for granted, and don't give it a second thought. We turn on the tap, it comes out, our water bill is cheap — and because our community is fortunate to not be experiencing drought conditions, most people don't give water any kind of priority. That's true also because our communities have been successfully protected from too much water, from flooding, for the last 100 years by the Miami Conservancy District, and so we also have the benefit of not having to worry about our changing weather patterns.
Q: By which you mean ….
A: We collect data on both rainfall and runoff, and we are seeing more rainfall — trends of more precipitation over the last 100 years in southwest Ohio. We have rainfall data back to 1890, and our basic message to people is that in the coming years, we will have more water when we don't want it, and less water when we do need it. The good news is that our flood protection system is ready to handle much more than we've seen in the past. The bad news is that we may not have the rainfall we need at the times of year when we want it.
Q: Remind people of the role and work of the Miami Conservancy District.
A: We were created 100 years ago, after the great 1913 flood, to protect our communities from flooding, to preserve our water resources and promote our rivers as a recreation asset.
Q: That last one was added later, though, right?
A: Actually, our mission was quite broad from the very beginning — Arthur Morgan, who created the district, had a vision that we would be a holistic, systems-based water agency. He even talked about the recreation aspect, and he did foresee that the five dams created for flood control would be used for parks and access to the river. Now our programs have evolved — they didn't know then we'd be dealing with things like storm water, nutrients, wastewater treatment, all the things we've helped communities with over the years.
Q: What’s the scope of your job?
A: As manager of watershed partnerships, I help make connections in our communities to solve water challenges and improve our rivers as an economic asset. The conservancy district serves everything that drains into the Great Miami River, which is a 15-county watershed, about 4,000 square miles. That said, the flood protection district is nine counties that have land that is either protecting or is protected by the flood protection system — so, that runs from Shelby County to the north, where you have Lockington Dam, all the way south to a small part of Hamilton County that's protected by our system. Miami, Montgomery and Butler are our main counties.
Q: Pretty much the areas that got hit hardest by the 1913 flood.
A: Pretty much.
Q: So, when you think of the impact the rivers have played on the history and character of these communities, was it the rivers, or the flood, that more defined us?
A: That's kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. The rivers brought us here, but the flood was the catalyst to build the system that has protected us and allowed us to thrive. And then, the rivers today are what is making our community great. We have protected infrastructure, businesses and homes, the rivers are healthy enough to enjoy. Why wouldn't you want to live here, in the protected area? That goes to land-use and development issues like sprawl, for instance.
Q: How so?
A: Well, our office is helping our riverfront cities to use the river as an economic development tool — we need to keep the urban cores healthy for those cities, and one way they're doing that is investing in riverfront recreation. In fact, in recent years, those cities have invested more than $100 million, from Sidney all the way to Fairfield, and that's already translated to over $230 million in economic development in those cities. They would not and could not make those investments if it weren't for the flood protection system that protects the urban cores.
Q: In your TEDx talk, you mentioned impacts of sprawl on our water.
A: Any time that natural land is covered with parking lots, roads, buildings, rainwater cannot soak through the ground and replenish our aquifer. The more land that is covered in impervious surface, the less area that is available for groundwater recharge. Our buried aquifer supplies drinking water to 99 percent of our communities. It's one of the healthiest and most plentiful sources of groundwater in the country. It generally follows the path of the rivers and streams across the area.
Q: What created it?
A: When the glaciers receded, they left a valley filled with gravel, which filled with water over time and was covered over with earth. Since it's gravel and goes over the whole landscape, it refills with water easily.
Q: Is it safe?
A: For the most part, it's very healthy. There are isolated areas where we have historical pollution problems that are mostly related to old industry that are areas of concern, but for the most part, it's in extremely good shape. But because it can be replenished easily over a large land area, that also makes it very vulnerable to future contamination. And the rivers help recharge our groundwater, so anything that goes into the rivers could potentially end up in our groundwater. One of the things we know is that our rivers are contaminated by nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus — the way some of our lakes are, Lake Erie, Grand Lake. Some studies have shown that those contaminants and toxins can move from rivers to the groundwater. So for over a decade, we've been working very closely with our farming community to install practices that reduce nutrient runoff to streams and rivers.
Q: What are some of those practices?
A: You can install a vegetated buffer — vegetation along ditches and streams, where the plants help take up the nutrients that are placed on fields as fertilizer, and also reduce soil running off the land. Or, you can grow a second crop over the winter — a "cover crop" — so that the soil is never exposed to rainfall. Those are two good examples.
Q: Those sound simple. Why is getting it done such a problem that we have all this runoff fertilizer pollution, then?
A: Because changing farming practices can be really expensive. While the agricultural community is a very willing partner with us, there just aren't enough resources to go around. It costs a lot of money to do these things on the scale that's needed, that would fix the problem. For the last 10 years, we've been managing a program to get those funds to farmers, but there's never enough money to meet the demand.
Q: Where does the funding come from?
A: We've been in partnership with all the communities that discharge treated wastewater into the river, which involves them discharging a small amount of phosphorus and nitrogen. So, it's a nutrient trading program where in order to meet the standards for discharge limits, they agree to invest in return in upstream agricultural runoff programs. The MCD manages the program. It's so much more affordable for the cities to invest in new farming practices than in new technology at the plants, and it's more environmentally effective, since so much more of the nutrient pollution comes from fields. Land use in this watershed is 70 percent agriculture, so that's where most of the runoff is coming from. It doesn't mean the farmers are all doing a bad job, it's just there is a lot of it.
Q: Do the farmers feel picked on over this issue? All the stories about algae pollution in the lakes and rivers cite them as the main cause.
A: The farmers in our counties have been extremely easy to work with, and they want to help solve the problem. It's just that there are never enough funds to implement the solution. So the trading program is a way to find those funds.
Q: Talk about the algae situation. The news reports recently said this summer was the worst ever in Lake Erie, and there was a huge algae bloom in the Ohio River, too.
A: The more rain we get in the spring and early summer, the worse it is, because the runoff carries the nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from the fields into the rivers and lakes. We were lucky in the Great Miami River this year — we didn't see an algae bloom here, though we did in 2012. It didn't test positive for toxins, fortunately. We do real-time monitors on the river, though. But you're right — Lake Erie's bloom was huge, the Ohio River had hundreds of miles of algae, and everyone here knows about Grand Lake. There are emerging technologies to deal with the algae, but it's cheaper to keep something clean than it is to clean it up.
Q: So, what’s the worst-case scenario on this?
A: That it would migrate into the groundwater and pollute our aquifer. We've never seen it happen here, but other places have experienced that. Keep in mind, though, that the Great Miami River is one of the healthiest rivers in the state. It has some issues, but mostly it's really doing well.
Q: Do you think most people here think of the river that way?
A: From my experience, most people don't realize it's as healthy as it is, because they assume that color equals quality. But really, brown is not an indicator of river health. Most pollutants are totally colorless and odorless. And our river was never a crystal-clear, babbling brook — it's a wide, shallow, brown river, and rivers have dirt, rocks and dead trees in them. That's OK.
Q: What’s the definition of a healthy river, then?
A: Ohio has state standards for rivers, and many miles of the Great Miami meet or exceed the highest standards, about 60 percent. About 20 percent is partially met, and about 20 percent not. So, we have some room for improvement, but overall the river is doing quite well. And so many cool things are happening on it, or about to — the River Run kayaking site in downtown Dayton. Troy is investing $10 million in a new riverfront park. Piqua, Miamisburg, Hamilton are all spending money on their riverfront recreation, and of course in Dayton RiverScape is one of the most popular MetroParks. Don't forget our 330 miles of paved bike trails. Just about every community along the river has some exciting new park built or planned. We've been told by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that collectively, this is one of the most significant collections of assets along a riverfront anywhere in the country.
Q: So, how we get the word out about all that?
A: Right, the challenge is promoting the assets. We need to do a better job marketing and getting the word out. For a long time, from Sidney to Fairfield, cities and companies and organizations like ours have been working together as something called Ohio's Great Corridor Association. In 2016, we'll be investing in a marketing and communications plant to will create a new brand for those 99 miles, to position us as more of a destination in the hopes of drawing people to the region. You know, these communities have been investing in the riverfronts for several decades, but it feels like we're gathering steam and are close to a tipping point where people realize what a huge asset we have here. This is all about using the rivers to help our communities become more healthy and thriving than they already are.
Q: Tell more about the marketing plan.
A: So next year we are going to contract with a marketing firm, and MCD is taking point on the effort on behalf of all the communities, to build a brand. The idea is to find a name we can successfully market, something catchy that people will remember and identify with our region. I think it will be good.
Q: How did you get so wrapped up in water as a topic?
A: I've been addicted to water and rivers my whole life. I grew up on a lake we could swim in every day, and I was even on the water ski team at Ohio State. I just continued to be obsessed with river recreation later on. We own seven kayaks between my husband and I, which is more than most people would have, I guess.
Q: Seven?
A: Well, yeah — you need long ones, short ones, one for the kid, one for rivers, one for lakes. You just need lots of kayaks.
Q: You mentioned the Ohio River algae. You made it part of your TEDxDayton talk.
A: So Labor Day weekend, we went with friends to the Ohio River near Athens, where I grew up, and took the ski boat our to teach our kids to water ski. I didn't even think of looking water quality reports, because the river hasn't had any algae problems in recent years. But we realized while we were skiing that we were in the middle of a giant algae bloom. We pulled the kids out of the water, pulled out our phones and started looking up water reports. It took us days to find all the information and toxins had been identified at the sites where we were boating that were hundreds of times higher than the health advisories. We were worried for days, but we were OK. But if somebody like me didn't know about it? We really aren't set up to inform the public about these things when they happen, and people don't realize the impact of this stuff. They almost cancelled the Ironman in Louisville this summer because of this. There is huge potential economic impact to this pollution, not to mention how many cities draw their drinking water from the river. Hundreds of them.
Q: Where do you see this going?
A: Unfortunately, with changing weather patterns — call it climate change, or whatever — our weather is changing, and we're going to have more and more of these runoff-driven water pollution issues and more contamination of our lakes and rivers. Until we get a handle on how to reduce the runoff, we're not going to get anywhere. The thing is, we do know how to do it. It's a collective issue.
Q: You talked about farmers. What else should government be doing? Or homeowners?
A: Communities should encourage better land-use practices through planning and zoning. Not enough are. Homeowners should soil test before they put fertilizer on their lawn — the truth is, they probably don't need the fertilizer. That's the biggest thing they can do. Don't dump stuff down the storm drain — no paint, no oil from your oil change, no yard clippings. They go straight into the river. And go out and enjoy the rivers, the bikeways — people who use and care about the rivers are the ones most likely to take steps to take care of them. Oh, and one more thing — drink your tap water when you're thirsty. You've already paid for it, and you should learn to appreciate where it comes from. No more wasting money on bottled water.
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