The Upper Scioto River and Olentangy River Watersheds have been mapped by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with 148 sampling locations spanning Crawford, Delaware, Franklin, Hardin, Logan, Marion, Morrow and Union Counties. Throughout, the summer and into the fall (2024) the Ohio EPA staff will be dispatched to each location for a myriad of Water Quality Sampling Measures.
The last effort of this size to include the Upper Scioto watershed took place along both Mill Creek and Bokes Creek in 2013. The Mills Creek sample sites bolstered sampling locations meeting the Clean Water Act (CWA) standards at a rate of 75%, while Bokes Creek sampling locations were split with 50% failing to meet CWA standards. Sampling locations nearest to urban and heavy agricultural use areas were the most likely to not meet CWA standards in chemical, biological and physical measures.
The Olentangy River, with it's headwaters near Galion, flows 94 miles south meandering along the western portion of Morrow County and into Marion County to eventually converge with the Scioto River in Columbus, OH. Notably, the water from the Whetstone Creek, which flows through both the villages of Mount Gilead and Cardington, will eventually drain into the Olentangy River. The Olentangy River Watershed has not been comprehensively sampled since 2004. 50% of the locations sampled, which were noted to be spread evenly amongst the study area, were considered impaired at that time.
To address the water quality issues in the two watersheds efforts were made to approve a Nine-Element Nonpoint Source Implementation Plans for the Headwaters of the Scioto, the Headwaters of the Olentangy, the Mouth of the Olentangy and the Delaware-Olentangy Run. These plans sought to identify meaningful objectives to design projects that would improve the chemical, biological and physical ailing at critical points in the two watersheds. 2024 brings us to the year when the watershed is to be assessed in the wake of the efforts implements of the last 20 years.
While chemical sampling will take place in the interest of monitoring public supply of drinking water and aquatic life use, the 2024 sampling of the Olentangy River Watershed will largely biological. Surveys of life will encompass bacteria to macro-invertebrates to sportfish all in an effort to understand the state of our riparian areas and surface water.
Read more here: https://dam.assets.ohio.gov/image/upload/epa.ohio.gov/Portals/35/tmdl/Study%20Plan/2024-USOMB-QAPP-FS.pdf
Source:
Division of Surface Water, Ohio EPA, et al. 2024, Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) for the Biological and Water Quality Study of the Upper Scioto River and Olentangy Watershed, 2024.
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