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Nonpoint Source Management A five-acre wetland and two massive stormwater treatment devices serve as unmistakable evidence of a working demonstration project for OKI and its project partners. We can now show several innovative techniques for reducing nonpoint source water pollution, a pervasive problem that originates from broad expanses of oily pavement or eroding ground rather than from the ends of pipes. Titled the Mill Creek Watershed Stormwater Quality Management Project, the collaborative effort started in mid-2000 and came to a conclusion on June 30, 2004. Project benefits should continue for years to come. In Butler County’s West Chester Township, the project converted a flat, featureless cornfield behind a far In Hamilton County, the project installed matching oil and grit separators at Sysco Food Services in Evendale and at the Hamilton County Engineer’s Central Maintenance Facility in Springfield Township. The underground devices weigh 54 tons each and feature carefully designed swirl chambers, baffle walls, settlement tanks and clean-out ports. They are removing truckloads of sludge and oily water that otherwise would have flowed to the Mill Creek. The federal government invested $227,000 of grant funds in the four In hopes of duplicating this success, OKI has applied for another nonpoint source pollution reduction grant to be implemented in the upper Mill Creek watershed. |
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m levee, into a streamside wetland with hills, ponds, native plants and wildlife. The ecologically restored site borders 1,300 feet of the upper Mill Creek, which has been re-connected to its floodplain and coaxed into a more natural meandering flow pattern.
-year effort and local project partners provided another $230,000 worth of services in kind. A dozen partners from the public and private sectors cooperated under OKI’s guidance to produce visible results for better regional water quality. Scientists, engineers, conservationists, elected officials, The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Ohio EPA, have paid compliments on the project’s effectiveness.