Sorry I’ve been so out of touch. I haven’t been getting out since the weather has taken a turn for the worst. While I’m housebound I thought I’d post some grad school papers I’ve been writing for my class. Please let me know what you think. This first paper highlights some of the trouble the city of Columbus and the state of Ohio has had with our drinking water.
Columbus, Ohio has an outstanding record for water quality as the city’s water supply has been a leader in good quality clean water since the 1900s. However, the state as a whole has had water safety issues. As the city of Columbus continues to experience growth and as the infrastructure ages, more issues will come to light. According to the Environmental Protection Agency over half of Ohio’s drinking water comes from surface water while the rest comes from groundwater located between sand and gravel aquifers, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection agency. The Ohio EPA also states that nearly eleven point one million people are on Ohio’s public water supply and many more people are using tapped groundwater. Both Columbus and the state has a responsibility to maintain the quality of the water in the short term and ensure it’s longevity.
Ohio has, on occasion, had difficulty maintaining the high quality of water residents expect. The most recent event was in Avon, Ohio, located in an Eastern suburb of Cleveland, where residents were told to stop using water because of a shortage caused by ice built up around Avon Lake Water Plant’s Lake Erie water pumps (Saniacomo, 2014). All residents served by the water plant were asked to cut their water consumption because the city’s water reserves were falling at nearly a foot an hour (Saniacomo, 2014). Avon Lake Regional Water responded to by the crisis by trying to remove the ice from the valves and cutting deeper into the ice to place new valves in hopes that the added flow would increase the city’s water reserves (Saniacomo, 2014).
Avon is not the only city to have trouble with the quality of Ohio’s water. In recent years, residents of Columbus have had trouble as recent as last year. On December 25 Columbus natives were surprised by a foul odor and sour flavor that left many people boiling water on the holiday morning. Though the city officials declared the water not harmful, many people still felt sickened at the idea of drinking the offensively scented water. The smells and taste lasted into early January leaving many people relying on bottled water, boiled water, or filtered water. The cause of the odor was discovered to be linked to algae and organic material that was stirred up when temperature changes agitated the Hoover Reservoir and the corresponding Hap Cremean Water Plant. The water has returned to its normal state, but the Reservoir and water plant provides water to five hundred thousand Columbus residents and the surrounding suburbs making incidents like this frightening.
The Ohio River is the major river artery of the Eastern-Central United States and is important to the Mississippi River as it is the top contributor of water out of all of the river’s tributaries. Even though this river is vitally important to the health of the Mississippi, it has been ranked as the most polluted river in the United State, according to Environment America (Silverstein, 2012). The report found that the pollution in the river has increased by one-million pounds, mostly from factory discharge into waterways (Silverstein, 2012). Other sources of pollution are raw sewage, urban and agricultural runoff, and mine drainage (Ohio River Facts, 2010). According to the Ohio River Foundation 10% of the United State’s population lives around the Ohio river and it supplies water to more than three million people (Ohio River Facts, 2010). The river is considered a “working river” (Silverstein, 2012) meaning that many organizations regardless of the fact that it is a fresh sources of drinking water for such a large number of people.
Works Cited:
1. Ohio River Facts. Ohio River Foundation, 2010, Retrieved from http://www.ohioriverfdn.org/education/ohio_river_facts/
2. Saniacomo, Michael “Water Shortage Reaching Critical Point in Avon as Utility Tries Another Way to Pull Water from the Frozen Lake.” The Plain Dealer January 08, 2014 Retrieved from http://www.cleveland.com/avon-lake/index.ssf/2014/01/water_shortage_affecting_more.html
3. Silverstein, Amy “Ohio River is the most polluted river in the United States” Global Post April 5, 2012 Retrieved from http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/120405/ohio-river-the-most-polluted-river-the-united-st
4. Sullivan, Lucas “Foul Tap-Water Odors, Flavor Persist” The Columbus Dispatch December 25, 2014 Retrieved from http://www.dispatch.com//content/stories/local/2013/12/25/foul-tap-water-odors-flavor-persist.html
5. Where Does Your Drinking Water Come From. Understanding Your Drinking Water. February 07, 2014 Retrieved from http://epa.ohio.gov/ddagw/dwgwbasics.aspx
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