COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hard rains north of Columbus just after the corn was planted likely washed nitrogen off farm fields and into the Scioto River. It moved downstream to Columbus.
On June 8 the Columbus Division of Water issued a nitrate advisory to residents receiving water from the Dublin Road Water Plant. The advisory warned against giving tap water to infants below the age of six months.
"We started to see high nitrates at our monitoring station at Prospect Ohio on June 1," said Richard Westerfield, administrator with the Division of Water. "The values went up to 20 milligrams per liter (MPL). When we saw these high nitrate levels June 1, we started to monitor at various locations along the river before that nitrate-loaded water got to the Dublin Road Water Treatment Plant."
It took about a week for the concentrations at the water plant to get above 10 MPL, which is the Ohio EPA’s drinking water limit. Typical nitrate levels are a few MPLs to near zero. The water treatment plant cannot remove nitrates.
Westerfield is not pointing a finger of blame at farmers even though the 1,000-square-miles watershed is 80 percent agriculture. He said the agricultural community has the same interests as the water division does, in keeping fertilizer on the fields.
"We have a good relationship with the agricultural community, and we know that at least some people are trying to use best practices," he said. "One question might be, is everybody on board with best fertilizer practices? Even at that, if you had a certain weather condition, is it possible that that would even defeat best practices?"
For that reason, Columbus is giving the Dublin Road plant a $200 million upgrade. An ion exchange process will be able to remove nitrates in the water. That should be in operation toward the end of 2017.
The Sierra Club, Ohio Chapter, however, saw the nitrate situation as an example of why Senate Bill 1, which prohibited the spreading of manure and fertilizer on frozen or saturated ground, needs to be statewide, said Jen Miller, chapter director.
"We need to educate farmers on safe practices and why we need to create limits on nitrate and phosphorous pollutions in our watershed," she explained. "We are having more flash rain events, more flooding of fields; we also see more sewer backups. Given that climate change is already impacting Ohio, we need to rethink clean water protection."
Farmers want to keep fertilizer and their manure on their fields; when it runs off, they’re losing money, too, Miller explained. Ways to do that include cover crops, riparian buffers, different ways to tile and drainage systems.
But even using those practices is not always a solution. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good one is at their job – Mother Nature always wins, said Joe Cornely, Ohio Farm Bureau Federation spokesperson.
"That is precisely what happened here," he said. "One of the challenges we have in talking with the public about this is helping them understand that there is just no way to weatherproof farming. This situation is an unfortunate example of how things can go wrong."
Those in agriculture appreciate the cooperative nature the authorities in Columbus have shown. "We’ve seen instances before where there is a lot of finger-pointing going on and to have public officials be factual without being accusatory is wonderful," Cornely said.
On June 11 the nitrate reading was 11.3 MPL leaving the water treatment plant. Westerfield expected the situation to last a couple of weeks or longer. For more information on the nitrate advisory, visit http://columbus.gov/Templates/Detail.aspx?id=80363
