COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohioans use 11 billion gallons of water each day for drinking, energy production, industry, commercial and recreational fishing, agriculture and more. Healthy Water Ohio (HwO) is a newly announced coalition organized to develop a long-range strategy to protect and enhance Ohio’s waters.

"Water is important for agriculture," said Steve Hirsch, president of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF), at a recent public launching of HwO. "It is a resource that is often taken for granted until we don’t have enough, as in a drought; or we have too much, or there is another problem.

"We don’t know all of the answers and we don’t even know all of the questions yet, but we want to try and find out. We wanted to take a proactive approach to collaboratively identify those challenges and opportunities concerning water quality for the next 20 to 30 years."

HwO has a 16-member steering committee and is a partnership of 30 stakeholders from conservation, business, universities, water suppliers, agriculture and others. The goal is to have a strategic implementation plan by the summer of 2015.

The group’s main focus areas are Ohio’s 60,000 miles of rivers and streams, 290 miles of Lake Erie coastline, 425 miles of Ohio River shoreline, more than 125,000 lakes, reservoirs and ponds covering nearly 265,000 acres and 942,000 acres of wetlands.

Challenges to water quality is probably the most generally recognized challenge and one HwO will address, said launch participant Larry Fletcher, executive director of Lake Erie Shores and Islands.

"People want to know their water is safe to drink or that they can swim or boat in their favorite body of water," he said. "Heavy rain events can cause stress on cornfields, waste water treatment facilities and warning signs on beaches."

Infrastructure is another area with challenges, Fletcher said. Aging locks and dams on the river and in other parts of the state, public water supply systems, aging water reservoirs and dredging – a current hot topic – all need to be discussed.

Water has an economic impact in many areas. Data from Tourism Ohio show visitors generate $38 billion in spending for the whole state; $11.5 billion of that is in the eight counties that border Lake Erie. As part of its introduction to the public, HwO will conduct a statewide public poll, said Dr. Larry Antosch, senior director of public policy at OFBF and a technical advisor for HwO.

One thousand Ohio citizens will be contacted by telephone for a 12- to 15-minute survey to gather input to guide the coalition’s effort.

"We wanted to talk to the general citizens of Ohio, asks them for their opinion in terms of what are the water resource issues that concern them the most ... there could be some regional concerns that will change from north to south," Antosch explained. "The goal is to have the information collected within the next few weeks and to have a final report coming up this fall."

The 30 stakeholder groups, with additional groups expected to become engaged, will operate in working groups to focus on specific subjects and provide input to the steering committee. They will hold a series of learning events throughout the state.

To learn more about these events or to become part of the initiative, email Antosch at lantosch@ofbf.org