Refreshed Mill Creek gets EPA attention

Refreshed Mill Creek gets EPA attention

The nation’s top water official for the Environmental Protection
Agency toured parts of Cincinnati this week, spending a steamy
afternoon in the Mill Creek watershed Thursday.

In sunglasses and a ball cap, Deputy Assistant Administrator of Water
Nancy Stoner, viewed a rain garden outside a large South Fairmount
apartment complex, accompanied by Hamilton County Commissioner Todd
Portune.

She nodded approval at the Laughing Brook, a small wetland of native
plants adorned with public art that drains into the Mill Creek across
from Spring Grove Cemetery.

“Are there pollutants?� Stoner wanted to know, as she toured the creek
for the first time, walking a portion of a newly paved 3½ mile bike
and walking path at the edge of Spring Grove Village and Northside
neighborhoods. “How’s the water quality?�

Improving, answered Robin Corathers, executive director of the Mill
Creek Restoration Project, focused on reclaiming the troubled waterway
since 1994.

Corather’s organization was recently named an Urban River Fellow, one
of 10 in the country chosen for the first class of the EPA’s new Urban
Waters program.

The fellowship provides technical support and other resources to the
fellows, no direct funds. Also as important, it creates a platform for
the organizations to meet and share their experiences. Other fellows
were chosen in Seattle, Wash., Buffalo, N.Y., and Denver, Colo., among
others.

One skill Cincinnati’s group already picked up was how to plant an
edible garden, which they began to plant Thursday down the trail from
Laughing Brook.

“We envision someone riding down the trail can just pluck an apple and
continue on,� Corathers said.

The highlight of the tour was natural and spontaneous.

Stoner leaned against the chain-link fence as the group watched a
great blue heron snap up a fish, drop it, fish it out again, then
gobble it down.

“Will you look at that,� Corathers said.
===================================


Crash course: The Mill Creek

The Mill Creek watershed is part of 37 communities and encompasses an
166 square-mile radius – twice the size of the city of Cincinnati.
Industrial, agricultural and waste removal practices in earlier years
polluted the waterway, earning the creek the classification of “most
endangered urban river in North America� in 1997 by the national group
American Rivers. Many projects have been completed or are underway in
recent years, but health and environmental officials still don’t
advise jumping in a canoe without a knowledgeable guide. They still
recommend using hand sanitizer anytime you come in contact with its
water.


Mill Creek fish update

Last year a comprehensive survey of the Mill Creek was undertaken by
the Metropolitan Sewer District, which remains under a court order to
upgrade its systems to the tune of $3.5 billion. Many projects are now
underway (read more at www.projectgroundwork.org). The studies were
performed and verified by the Midwest Biodiversity Institute. It’s the
first survey of this magnitude since the Ohio Environmental Protection
Agency conducted a survey in 1992.
Fish findings: 46 species collected in 2011 compared to 33 in 1992
Highlights includes:
• Channel catfish – average numbers increased from 1.3 per site to
6.8.
• Sand shiner and emerald shiner were not collected in 1992 – the
latter indicates water in the Mill Creek is health enough to encourage
these fish to swim into the creek from the Ohio river, said to be
essential in the further recover of Mill Creek.
• 3 species of darters (sensitive fish) found last year, compared to 1
in 1992.
• The percentage of fish with deformities, lesions and tumors has
significantly dropped as well.
“What all of this points to is that Mill Creek is a recovering
system,� said Chris O. Yoder, research director of the Midwest
Biodiversity Institute in Columbus. “While Mill Creek is still
impaired in terms of compliance with the Ohio water quality standards,
it has shown incremental improvement.�

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