By CELESTE BAUMGARTNER
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The water quality in Grand Lake St. Marys has been deteriorating for years. A three-year study, looking at the conditions of the water entering the lake, should determine what impact conservation practices are having.

The study is being conducted by the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University. It is focusing on Chickasaw Creek as typical of the Grand Lake St. Marys watershed.
Conservationists were not concerned that first-year findings found some degradation in the tributary.

“If local producers continue to increase conservation practices such as planting cover crops and constructing sufficient manure storage facilities, they will help reduce the amounts of nutrients delivered to Grand Lake St. Marys tributaries,” said Terry Cosby, State Conservation, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
That first-year report pointed to some important trends, said Michelle Lohstroh, assistant state conservationist, NRCS. Most of the nutrients came into the creek in a few days with the flow of water after a heavy rain or snow melt.

“That might send some messages about how the delivery of the nutrients gets to Grand Lake St. Marys,” Lohstroh said. “That’s when we would see the spikes into the water sampling station on Chickasaw creek. We were also seeing concentrations of suspended solids.”

Total phosphorous concentrations were also high, Lohstroh said. They exceeded the EPA standards on 80 percent of the days that were sampled.

“Our feeling is hopefully, with some of this knowledge, then we can recommend some practices to farmers, thing like cover crops, and work with manure facilities, that this would help,” Lohstroh said. “We would hope down the road, as the study continues, perhaps to see some changes in the water quality that might be documented through this process.”

It is not just livestock causing the problem. Lohstroh said. Crop nutrients can travel off the field as well, particularly with the heavy spring rains that occurred in the area.

Significant progress is being made in the watershed by local operators who are implementing additional conservation practices. The Kevin Bettinger family, farming south of Coldwater, completed a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan for the farm, which includes a steer finishing operation.

Lot runoff goes into a lagoon and liquids are applied to a cover crop in late summer. This controls erosion and improves soil quality while safely cycling manure and other nutrients through soil and vegetation.

Grand Lake St. Marys watershed has the highest concentration of livestock facilities in Ohio. About 300 operations of all types drain into the watershed. Besides NRCS, a variety of agencies – including the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Agriculture – are working to resolve this problem.

“All of us have taken on some initiative to work out there in the watershed,” Lohstroh said.

Interested farmers may call Celina District Conservationist Jim Will at 419-586-2548 to learn more about conservation practice options and program support through the Environmental Quality Incentive program. The complete Chickasaw Creek study report can be found online at www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov/technical