HARRISON, Ohio — Every third Saturday, no matter the weather, March-November, volunteers traipse to 74 sites in the lower Great Miami River (GMR) basin to each scoop up a bottleful of water. They’ve been doing that since the spring of 2010.

The water is taken to the University of Cincinnati’s Field Station in Harrison where it is tested for nitrates, phosphorous, bacteria, conductivity, turbidity and acidity. The data collected provide a much needed snapshot of the water quality of the lower Great Miami Watershed. It is used for education, planning and point-source pollution reduction.

“Based on the U.S. Geologic Survey study, they have identified this Great/Little Miami/Whitewater basin area that drains from southwest Ohio and southeast Indiana as having one of the highest export rates as far as nutrients, nitrogen and phosphorous, coming down through the system into the Mississippi River basin,” said Brian Bohl, stream specialist with Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).

At some point those nutrients are converted into algae and transported further down the system, he said. As the algae die off, they’re consumed by bacteria in the water column.

“The bacteria colonies have declining oxygen values, and declining oxygen concentration,” Bohl said. “At certain levels there is not a lot of aquatic life that can survive. So there is a connection between nutrients, algae and oxygen levels.

“A lot of different watersheds contribute to that issue, but there is cumulative effect, that this basin area has been identified as historically transporting higher levels of nutrient concentration.”

The land use data for the GMR watershed are now in place, said Michael Miller, Ph.D., professor emeritus with the University of Cincinnati and current professor at Northern Kentucky University.

Agriculture, primarily corn, soybean and alfalfa, comprises 69 percent of its land use. Residential, commercial and industrial land use comprise 16 percent; 9 percent is forest and the remaining 1 percent are water bodies and wetlands. Next year the monitoring group will try to statistically determine what effect agriculture has on water quality.

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ohio EPA came out with position statements in 2012 that both are going to put the onus in the future on farms,” he said. “The sewage plants have now cleaned up the point-source pollution.”

Bob Minges, who is a volunteer river monitor, farms part time in Colerain Township. He worked in the environmental field at the Fernald Closure Project and did environmental sampling there. He became concerned with issues in the GMR watershed.

“As a farmer, you’ve got to think about runoff,” he said. “You start looking at the fact that our hayfield is upstream from somebody’s pond and our practices affect his water quality. That’s kind of a direct thing.

“Sometimes you don’t think about your runoff affecting the Gulf of Mexico because it is so far away. But when you look at what you do on your property and the farm right downgrade has a pond, you start looking at the algae growth in his pond and you realize, what we’re doing affecting his water quality.”

The lab is co-led by Miller and Bohl. Project partners are Rivers Unlimited, Friends of the Great Miami, Hamilton County SWCD and the University of Cincinnati Center for Field Studies.

To see results of the water quality monitoring or to learn more, visit www.riversunlimited.org and click on “Water Quality Monitoring” on the left. To inquire about volunteering, phone 513-324-2567 or email lisa.link@riversunlimited.org