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Water Resource Plan details potential threats to Ada's drinking water

The following story was posted in Ada Icon in the interest of Bluffton viewers.

By Amy Eddings of Ada Icon
The latest phase of Ada's Water Resource Plan has identified scores of potential sources of contamination to the village's drinking water, including large-scale animal farms, crude oil pipelines and privately-owned injection wells.

Village Administrator Jim Meyer provided updates on the nine-year-old project for Ada’s Community Improvement Corporation during their meeting last Wednesday at Ohio Northern University.

Using a series of maps, Meyer showed attendees the flow patterns of underground and surface water, how it affects the aquifer that Ada gets its drinking water from, how deep that aquifer is, and what lies over it. The good news, he said, is that much of it is shielded by bedrock that is, in turn, covered by a thick layer of clay. That clay, or overburden, acts as a natural filter of rainwater and runoff.

But there are some areas north of the village where this overburden is thin, making the aquifer more vulnerable to contamination.  And the bad news, as Meyer went on to explain, is that the potential for contamination is growing as the number of confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, increases, and existing ones seek to expand.

While Meyer’s presentation highlighted various potential contamination sources, including railways, oil pipelines, highways and municipal waste landfills, CAFOs are his biggest concern. It was the arrival in 2006 of the 4,500-head Van Deurzen Dairy, between Alger and McGuffy, that prompted the creation of the Water Resources Project.

“It’s becoming an issue,” he said, of agricultural runoff.  “What we’re seeing in Lake Erie, St. Marys, it’s ag."

Phosphorus in farm fertilizer and manure runoff led to toxic algae blooms in Lake Erie that left more than 400,000 people in Toledo without safe drinking water last August.  Grand Lake St. Marys, about 25 miles west of Lima, closed its beaches temporarily last spring after officials found dangerously high levels of the liver toxin microcystin, a byproduct of blue-green algae.

Meyer was quick to point out that he and village officials were not opposed to big ag businesses in Hardin County.  “I don’t want you to think we’re against any of these,” he said.  “We’re concerned."

He said there are approximately 68 people per square mile in Hardin County, compared to roughly 9,388 animals.  Meyer said their manure is being applied to fields with little or no treatment of the sort that human waste is put through. “If you spread that manure at the bare spots, the vulnerable spots [in the overburden], there’s going to be a problem."

Another aquifer entry point for contaminants is wells.  Meyer said 40 percent of Hardin County’s population gets water from privately-owned wells.  He said he’s not sure what condition they’re in, and whether they’re being maintained properly.  He suspects those wells are at homesteads that are located closer to fields, but he’s not sure which fields in the area are being sprayed with manure, and how much manure is being applied.
“I wanna see that data,” he told the group.

Not only are there wells drawing water out of the ground.  Meyer’s research found there are plenty of injection wells that are pumping material back in.

“This really surprised me,” he said, pointing to a map of injection wells.  It was spotted with dots.  Such wells are often used in rural areas by trailer parks, businesses, churches and schools to dispose of sewage, non-hazardous industrial wastewater, and fluids from car repair shops.

“I don’t know who looks at them, who monitors them,” Meyer said.  "We’ve got to do the research into what’s being put back in and at what level"

Meyer said the next phase of the Water Resource Plan includes finding out how quickly contamination could spread to Ada’s well heads.  He said he’d like to see plan become a land use map, guiding village and county officials in development decisions, like where to site a new dairy farm or an industrial park.

“People have to start to think about this,” Meyer said of ag runoff.  “It’s eventually going to effect groundwater."

The following links connect to related stories:
http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/4500-cow-dairy-gets-the-ok/1091.html
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/2011/ucm27822...

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