2/14/2024
WT Staff
HAPPENING NOW
Streamflows fall below seasonal normal
Drought areas in Lake Erie and Ohio River basins
Water news for Wednesday, February 14, 2024 1158 am EST
Drinking Water Matters
Hillsboro City officials issued a boil water advisory Feb 12 for residents living on Marys Lane and Elizabeth Drive until further notice.
Streamflow Situation from USGS Waterwatch based on real-time flow monitors across Ohio
Below normal streamflows are the dominant rating in Ohio Wednesday with eight locations signalling levels much below the seasonal normal, a trend that is now showing up on the drought map with watersheds all over Ohio rated below normal.
In spite of today's below normal report, Ohio EPA notes that streamflows in Maumee watershed feeding the west basin Lake Erie have increased significantly during spring and early summer over a twenty year period 2000-2020.
The critical period for Lake Erie Harmful Algae Bloom (HAB) is the 153 days from March 1 to July 31. Streamflow levels during this period indicates the excess phosphate pollution that drives HABs for the year. This in turn determines the level of risk for drinking water facilities working to secure the safety of their raw water supply.
The OEPA Source Assessment for Lake Erie Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of phosphate, or the Lake Erie "Pollution Diet" shows the vast majority of phosphate pollution coming from Maumee watershed landscape with stormwater runoff and streambed erosion. These are unregulated non-point sources outside of the parameters of Clean Water Act, largely out of reach of OEPA efforts to enforce a "pollution diet" for the waterways.
The spreading of manure from hog, dairy and chicken barns is regulated in terms of the timing of application, in that application is subject to regulation,is not to be applied to fields on frozen ground, the winter's accumulation of manure from dairy, hog and chicken barns is spread on thawed ground in the spring, between rain events, depositing soluble phosphate often before row crops are present to take it in.
Check back for the daily streamflow update here as we count down to the start of the Lake Erie critical window, beginning March 1.
Lake Erie is the drinking water source for 12.5 million people in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, Canada, including 3 million people in Ohio. OEPA reports that streamflows in the critical window for nutrient pollution are 12 % higher from 2000-2020 than the average levels recorded from 1980 to 2000.
As of this update there are no extreme high or extreme low flows registering in the state network.
Drought map from USGS Waterwatch 7-day average streamflow compared with historic flow for today's date
Auglaize River remains below normal in the Lake Erie west drainage basin, Ashtabula-Chagrin River watersheds join Grand River watershed at a below normal rating in the Lake Erie basin east of Sandusky Bay.
South of the drainage divide, Little Muskingum River watershed dropped back to below normal Wednesday, having escalated to moderate drought Tuesday. Middle Ohio River minor tributary Shade River and next door watershed Raccoon-Symmes remain below normal. Scioto's Tygarts tributary is off the drought map Wednesday, leaving a gap of normal in the Ohio River basin from east Lawrence County to west Hamilton County.Lower Great Miami River watershed remains below normal again today.
The height-of-land divide in Ohio runs from Mercer County in the west angling northeast up to Ashtabula County on the east state border. Streamflows north of the divide feed Lake Erie, flows south of the divide run to the Ohio River, part of the Mississippi River basin that drains the majority of interior North America to the Gulf of Mexico.
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