The Upper Big Walnut Creek Water Quality Partnership is a consortium of public and private resource representatives working collaboratively towards the protection of water resource quality in the Big Walnut Creek watershed. This partnership cooperatively links the resource needs of a production-based rural agricultural community with the consumer-based urban communities, both in Central Ohio. To achieve this goal, the partnership has adopted the “Watershed approach”. This voluntary approach is a process that empowers local stakeholders to understand inter-related environmental issues and leverage professional and financial resources in a coordinated effort that addresses identified water quality concerns. The Upper Big Walnut Creek Watershed Water Quality Management Plan characterizes the watershed resources, assesses the relationship between these resources and provides recommendations the community can support and implement.
The Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed is approximately 190 mi2 encompassing portions of five counties in Central Ohio. The watershed is characteristically rural with private residences distributed throughout the watershed and three incorporated communities of Galena, Marengo and Sunbury. Although agricultural cropland currently represents the greatest amount of watershed area, residential and commercial development is rapidly changing the watershed landscape and affecting the agricultural community.
More than 60% of the watersheds land use is for the agricultural row crop production of corn, soybeans and wheat. In 1997, agricultural cash receipts for production of these crops represent an estimated $6.3 million or 47.3% of the watershed’s total agricultural production capital (ODA, 1998). The remaining agricultural revenue is attributed to dairy, cattle, poultry and other crops such as nursery stock for a total estimated annual agricultural production of $13 million. In order to achieve these desired agricultural production goals, farmers in the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed use production management tools such as planters, harvesters, tillage equipment, fertilizers and pesticides. Also, soil conservation tools such as drainage, grassed waterways and riparian corridor buffers are installed to help manage water resources and preserve long-term use of the cropland.
The City of Columbus is a direct consumer of the water resources derived from the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed. Hoover reservoir was created in 1955 to meet the drinking water needs of communities in Central Ohio. The Hap Cremean drinking water plant derives its raw water supply from Hoover reservoir and produces an average 72 million gallons of water each day. More than 500,000 people in 12 communities are provided with safe and reliable drinking water from the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed and the Hap Cremean drinking water facility. In order to achieve this goal and meet the drinking water needs of the communities and stringent federal US EPA established drinking water quality standards, the Hap Cremean drinking water facility utilizes expensive treatment technologies. Exhaustive water quality monitoring of both untreated and treated drinking water is a tool used by the drinking water purveyor to help determine if they are meeting the drinking water standards. Of the eighty-eight primary and secondary drinking water standards the Columbus Division of Water monitors, the agricultural herbicide atrazine has been documented to potentially become problematic for the drinking water purveyor.
The 1986 Amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) mandates that drinking water purveyors comply with new drinking water quality standards. As part of these new parameters, a maximum contaminant level (MCL) for atrazine was established at 3 µg/L on a running annual average. The MCL for atrazine was promulgated in 1991 and enforced in 1994 in which all drinking water utilities are required to monitor at least quarterly for atrazine in treated water. Prior to this established MCL, the Columbus Division of Water’s unique watershed-wide water quality monitoring program detected elevated atrazine levels in Hoover reservoir. In 1991, Ciba-Geigy conducted an exhaustive study of the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed to understand what factors contributed to the elevated atrazine detection’s in Hoover reservoir (Ciba-Geigy, 1991).
Although seasonal atrazine levels exceeding 3ug/L occur in some years, only 1989 and 1990 resulted in an annual average higher than the MCL. It was determined that the probability of re-occurrence is less than 9% in any year (Ciba-Geigy, 1991). Although the utility is at a low risk of exceeding the atrazine MCL, the Columbus Division initiated a dual water quality management approach. In 1997, a powdered activated carbon (PAC) feed facility was installed at the Hap Cremean drinking water facility to prevent contamination of drinking water caused by zenobiotic compounds, organic chemical compounds and other microbiological contaminants. In addition and as recommended by citizens of Columbus, the utility facilitated a proactive, farmer-led water quality partnership with the agricultural community of the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed.
Sections 1453 and 1454 of 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act amendments (SDWA) mandates by 2003 all public drinking water systems (PWSs) conduct source water assessments. As a result of the information gained from these assessments, drinking water purveyors will facilitate and implement voluntary, locally developed, incentive-based partnership source protection programs. Concurrently, the Federal Agriculture Improvement Reform Act (FAIRA), also known as the “1996 Farm Bill” made sweeping changes in the agricultural conservation programs. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) combines previous conservation programs into one comprehensive umbrella program that attempts to “…maximize environmental benefits per dollar expended”. The Upper Big Walnut Creek Watershed Water Quality Management links these complementary programs to help achieve water quality goals.
In September 1997, the Upper Big Walnut Creek Water Quality Partnership was formally organized and obtained $100,000 funding from Ohio’s State legislature. State Representative
Joan Lawrence sponsored a special funding grant for this project. The purpose of the grant was to help the agricultural community voluntarily demonstrate their commitment and organize resources to implement conservation management practices that improve water quality in the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed. Portions of the funding were available for a watershed coordinator and the remaining funds were or program development. In October 1997, the partnership hired Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. as the watershed coordinator for a two-year period. Watershed coordinator’s responsibilities include formation and coordination of a farmer-led Task Force, public outreach and education, pilot-study subwatershed project, conduct susceptibility analysis, and develop the water quality management plan. The Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District has continued to staff the project with a coordinator who also is the District’s Streams and Watershed Specialist.
The Upper Big Walnut Creek Water Quality Partnership desires to approach water quality management through voluntary, cooperative, innovative and incentive-based programs. The Partnership intends to achieve this approach by leveraging existing professional and financial resources to identify, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the watershed’s water quality conservation programs. This management approach coincides with the US EPA and Ohio EPA Watershed Protection Approach, 1991 and Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Management Plan for the State of Ohio, Part 1: The Generic PMP, 1998.
Development of the Upper Big Walnut Creek Watershed Water Quality Management Plan for the communities served by the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed involve six major tasks, as describe by the “Watershed Approach” (Ohio EPA, 1997):
The Upper Big Walnut Creek Water Quality Partnership has conducted these tasks of the watershed approach in the Upper Big Walnut Creek watershed. Results of these tasks are documented in a Watershed Water Quality Management Plan and provide recommendations for further conservation programs and other action items to be implemented by various watershed partners.