The Daily Standard
Story Archive
The newly constructed wetlands south of the St. Marys River are part of the McGowan Treatment Train designed to improve water quality by reducing sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen runoff.
State and city officials gathered in St. Marys Wednesday morning to celebrate the opening of one of the state's newest water treatment projects, aimed at improving water quality throughout the region.
The McGowan Treatment Train is located just south of the St. Marys River at 12654 Aqueduct Road in St. Marys, and includes 31 acres of wetlands spanning a 64-acre site. The wetlands were constructed as a part of Gov. Mike DeWine's H2Ohio Initiative through a collaboration between the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the City of St. Marys.
H2Ohio was launched in 2019 by DeWine, and uses a comprehensive approach guided by science and data to reduce algal blooms, stop pollution and improve access to clean drinking water by supporting best farming practices, road salt runoff reduction, litter cleanup, dam removal, land conservation and water infrastructure revitalization.
"St. Marys has an important history when it comes to water, from the development of the Miami-Erie Canal to Grand Lake St. Marys," DeWine said in a statement. "H2Ohio fits perfectly into their story by improving water quality in the area with the creation of these wetlands."
The newly constructed wetlands south of the St. Marys River are part of a water treatment project designed to improve water quality by reducing sediment, phosphorus and nitrogen runoff.
The project includes a variety of wetland vegetation. Pollinator plants, forbs and grass were planted to create habitat and stabilize wetland areas.
The project created a series of wetland pools to trap sediment and reduce nutrients flowing northwest past the City of St. Marys and ultimately into the Maumee River and Lake Erie.
The new wetland pool complex, referred to as a treatment train, can hold more water during storm events and will allow for greater nutrient removal for both phosphorus and nitrogen.
In addition to wetland creation, the project also has water intake pipes with flow control structures to regulate the volume of water entering the wetlands.
City engineer Craig Moeller explained Wednesday that the property's location was perfect for the project, as the St. Marys River sits to the north, and the Miami-Erie Canal sits to the west.
"We've got the gates that allow the water in from the Miami-Erie Canal. We've got two, 36-inch pipes that flow underneath the road and come into the first sediment pond," he said. "From there, it takes just about a mile trek, not quite, but just about a mile trek through the sediment pond. … It goes all the way back almost to the cornfield back here, and then back around to this final sediment pond. We have four intakes that go into our pump house from here. The water gets pumped all the way across Greenville Road next to K.C. Geiger Park and gets dumped in over there so the water can flow through the city, through the canal itself."
ODNR Director Mary Mertz speaks to about 40 attendees at Wednesday's ribbon cutting ceremony for the McGowan Treatment Train near St. Marys.
ODNR Director Mary Mertz said the state tapped Stephen Jacquemin, an environmental sciences professor at Wright State University-Lake Campus, to assess the results of the project once it was complete through his membership in The Lake Erie and Aquatic Research Network (LEARN).
LEARN is a group of field stations, scientific laboratories and diverse researchers from 20 Ohio institutions that work together to promote collaborative research, education and networking to address the challenges and opportunities facing the state's aquatic ecosystems, per its website.
ODNR has contracted the Wetlands and Water Quality group within the LEARN since 2021 to develop and implement the H2Ohio Wetland Monitoring Program. The goal of the program is to assess nutrient removal of wetland restoration and enhancement projects implemented by through the H2Ohio Initiative.
"When we started this program, we knew we wanted an independent entity to evaluate our projects and our program. … Dr. Jacquemin, we already knew because we've been working with him at Grand Lake St. Marys. … We've known him and been working with him. He is part of this LEARN network, and I think does a great job keeping us honest, you know?" Mertz said. "What we want to know is, if a project isn't producing what we expected, what can we change about it or, what happened? We haven't had a project yet that doesn't do anything good, but sometimes, not this one, sometimes it doesn't give us quite what we expected. We try to go back with engineers and figure out how to make it better."
So far, the results from Jacquemin have been positive, Mertz said.
"He came up with some great statistics showing it's producing just what we expected it to produce and really reducing the phosphorus and nitrogen levels before the water rejoins the journey down the river," she said.
The McGowan Treatment Train is located just south of the St. Marys River at 12654 Aqueduct Road in St. Marys, and includes 31 acres of wetlands spanning a 64-acre site.
Former mayor Pat McGowan, who served from 2012 to 2024, noted at Wednesday's ribbon cutting that his administration began talking about a possible treatment train project during his first year in office.
"We started the process and I remember when I left office I turned over to Joe a pile about this thick of things and conversations I had had with various people - written and also verbal," he said. "After making numerous trips to Columbus, we found out about the H2O project. (City manager of industrial and community development) Mike Burkholder got to work on it that day, and Craig Moeller, they really delved into the whole process of what we needed to do and how we had to do it. We presented our case as to what we wanted to do, and had a chance to meet a couple of U.S. senators, a couple U.S. reps, and lots and lots of state people who were extremely helpful to us in this process. We followed the paperwork and we finally got this thing going together and we kicked off the project. Thanks to my friend here, Joe Hurlburt, we finished it."
The City of St. Marys purchased the 64-acre property for about $13,500 per acre, or roughly $864,000 in total, from David Dickman in 2022, according to city safety service director Greg Foxhoven and information obtained on the county auditor's website. The purchase was funded with $64,000 from the city and about $800,000 in Clean Ohio grant funding.
The city was also awarded a $3.5 million H2Ohio grant to help design and construct the wetlands in October 2021.
Hurlburt thanked state and local crews who had a hand in the project, and noted the different types of wildlife its brought to the area.
"Our electric crews are all involved with this when it comes to all the pumps and things that make this thing happen. I want to thank them as well. And again, I want to thank you guys for being here," he said. "I'll tell you, I drive around this facility about two times a week, and the wildlife and the birds that you see in the back- you probably have seen some white egrets fly in the back already. There's sandhill cranes that are rare to this area, and they're back here, ducks and geese."
