Grand Lake/Wabash Watershed Alliance to disband

The Mercer County Soil and Water Conservation District board on Thursday voted to disband the joint board of the Grand Lake/Wabash Watershed Alliance because it is no longer needed.

The Mercer SWCD board also agreed to hire someone for the newly created watershed technician position to replace outgoing watershed coordinator Abbey Tobe. The board also agreed to create an advisory board of community members to guide watershed initiatives.

Mercer SWCD officials hope to hire someone for the new position that covers all of Mercer County by the end of January or beginning of February, Mercer SWCD administrator/education specialist Nikki Hawk said.

The new watershed technician would guide water quality improvement efforts in Mercer County, in addition to the acreage in the Grand Lake/Wabash River Watershed, Hawk said. The watershed technician would annually update the watershed action plan, schedule advisory board meetings and hold educational programs.

The state grant that funded Tobe's position expired in February.

"The joint board was originally created in 1999 to apply for (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) grants to fund a watershed coordinator. To get the grants, we needed a joint board," Hawk said. "Since the grant is expired, we no longer need the joint board. We don't want people to think we are abandoning the watershed project. We're just removing a layer of bureaucracy that's not needed."

In addition to the grant money, funds from Mercer, Auglaize and Darke counties and the city of Celina also have paid for the salary and benefits of several people who have held the watershed coordinator's position for years.

Hawk said about $113,000 in unused grant funds are available to help fund the salary of whoever is hired as the new watershed technician. Auglaize and Darke county officials said they would continue to fund the new position and review the decision at the end of 2016.

Hawk said she has not yet spoken with Mercer County and Celina officials about their continued funding.

The watershed group for years has received various grants to write and implement a watershed action plan and complete projects aimed at improving water quality. The plan is a state-endorsed document that cites ways to improve water quality in the 193,000-acre Grand Lake/Wabash River watershed in Mercer, Auglaize and Darke counties. It is updated annually.

Tobe's job has been to guide water quality projects in the watershed, which has been deemed one of the most degraded in the state by the EPA. Most of the sediment and nutrients contributing to poor water quality come from runoff from farmland, which makes up more than 90 percent of the acreage in the watershed.

In other action Thursday, the Mercer SWCD board reviewed and received reports on two pollution complaints and two allegations of improper manure application.

The board learned that Maria Stein farmer Brian Schmitmeyer will be issued a notice of violation for a manure pollution incident reported Nov. 2 in the Wabash River Watershed. The report said manure leaked from a pinhole in a hose into a ditch at Cranberry Road. The hose was being used to pump manure to a field on Huwer Road as part of a manure application. SWCD officials found discolored water and some dead fish in a nearby ditch. The ditch water tested 10 parts per million for ammonia. A reading of 13 ppm is considered chronic toxicity to aquatic life and 1 ppm is considered normal, SWCD officials have said.

The Ohio EPA was notified of the incident and EPA officials arrived at the site Nov. 4. EPA officials reportedly told the landowner to pump out the polluted water from the ditch. On Nov. 5, SWCD officials visited the farm and found the water was being pumped into a holding pond. Water from three of the four outlet tiles was clear, but the north tile was running brown water. Mercer SWCD officials said they suspected there likely is another pollution source in addition to the manure that escaped through the pinhole in the hose, but they were unable to identify the source.

Mercer SWCD and ODNR officials will continue to monitor the outlet tiles and the SWCD will work with the landowner to update the farm's comprehensive nutrient management plan.

In the second pollution complaint, no discharge was found at a turkey mortality stockpile plant in the Grand Lake St. Marys Watershed. A caller contacted the Mercer SWCD on Oct. 27 complaining of exposed turkey carcasses that were attracting scavenging animals and leachate. The report showed that SWCD officials found the pile was not well-maintained but that no leachate was emanating from it. The landowner agreed to bury the carcass pile and SWCD officials on Oct. 29 verified the compliance.

An allegation of improper manure application reported on Nov. 5 was deemed invalid and a second reported on Nov. 9 was turned over to the Ohio Department of Agriculture for review.

The Nov. 9 incident at the intersection of Manley and Erastus-Durbin roads in the St. Marys River Watershed was turned over to ODA because the manure came from Heartland Dairy Holdings, a state-permitted dairy farm on Tama Road. The caller's concerns were that no setbacks for manure application were followed, that manure was not incorporated and that rain had been forecast for that evening. Proper setbacks were not followed, SWCD engineer Theresa Dirksen said.

The invalid Nov. 5 incident was in the Wabash River Watershed at the intersection of St. Anthony and Township Line roads. The caller was concerned about odor and that proper setbacks and rules for manure application were not followed. SWCD officials said the site had not received manure for many years and a nearby open ditch showed no evidence of runoff.

The board also on Thursday agreed to apply for an $8,000 Western Lake Erie Basin grant to assist with pollution complaint resolution. The Mercer SWCD is eligible for the grant because it already follows the requirements of maintaining a daily log of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather forecasts, assisting in outreach to help farmers comply with new laws regulating manmade fertilizer, assisting in implementing nutrient management plans, reporting all livestock/fertilizer complaint information as appropriate and providing a brief year-end summary report, according to Hawk.

The board also agreed to get trees for the SWCD's annual seedling sale from a different provider. SWCD technician Matt Heckler said this will save the district shipping costs and administrative fees. The SWCD will now be able to provide 25 tree varieties instead of a dozen.

The next Mercer SWCD meeting is 10 a.m. Dec. 8 at the soil and water office in the Central Services Building, Celina.