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ohio river Water quality endangered

The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) - a regulatory agency created to control pollution of the Ohio River - is considering plans to weaken water quality standards. ORSANCO has reported that in a given year there were 180 days where standards were violated. If adopted these proposals will make it legal to allow sewage into the Ohio River. This will be bad for public health, the economy, and the river. Also, polluters would be given a pass and there will no longer be an incentive to continue to reduce pollution of this natural resource.

Protecting and improving Ohio River quality is about competition with other U.S. communities for tourism, business, and new workers. It's about quality of life. It's about confidence in our supply of drinking water. It's about pride in our communities.

STATUS UPDATES

(April 2008) Ohio River water quality workshops for ORSANCO tri-annual standards review

ORSANCO workshops to obtain public opinion about current standards are scheduled as listed below. There is also a preliminary comment period that closes May 16. The issues expected to be raised in the review of the ORSANCO Pollution Control Standards were identified based on their being raised in the previous review, or through development work that has been completed since the last review. It must be emphasized that comments will be accepted on all portions of the current Standards.

Temperature

ORSANCO convened a work group including representatives of state and federal environmental and fisheries agencies, universities, and the power industry to review its current temperature criteria as well as studies of thermal impacts that have been completed since those criteria were adopted. The work group recommended a methodology for deriving new temperature criteria. The methodology and resulting criteria are under review by state agency staff.

Translators for Metals

ORSANCO has conducted monitoring for dissolved and total recoverable metals at 17 Ohio River sites for over ten years. The data have been used to develop translators for relating dissolved and total recoverable metals concentrations. The translators would allow permit limits, which must be based on total recoverable concentrations, to be developed to meet in stream criteria, which limit the dissolved portion.

Selenium

The criteria for selenium in the Commission’s Standards are considered outdated. US EPA is working on new criteria, which are expected to be adopted by the end of 2008. The Commission may consider adoption of the new criteria if they are available in time to be included in proposed revisions to the Standards. If EPA encounters delays in finalizing its criteria, the Commission may need to consider an alternative course of action.

Pathogens

The Commission Standards currently include water quality criteria and effluent limits for fecal coliform and e. coli bacteria. There is considerable work being done to identify better bacterial indicators. The current criteria development plan for US EPA calls for new criteria to protect recreational use in 2012. There is also a need for better pathogen criteria to protect drinking water use.

Applicability of New US EPA Human Health Criteria

US EPA has adopted several new human health criteria in recent years. Derivation of those criteria involves certain assumptions about the rate of fish consumption and the exposure to a given pollutant from sources other than drinking water and eating fish. The Commission is seeking information as to whether or not the assumptions used in the derivation of the national criteria are valid for the Ohio River.

Wet Weather Standards

In 2006, the Commission proposed revisions to Section IV- Water Quality Criteria and Section V – Waste Water Discharge Requirements to provide for wet weather conditions. Comments on the proposed revisions were overwhelmingly negative. The proposed revisions to Section IV were not adopted but the proposed revisions to Section V were adopted. The Commission has undertaken a study of recreational use of the Ohio River to determine if the assumptions used in the proposed revisions to Section IV were valid. This study is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

The workshop dates, times, and locations are:

April 14 - Ohio River Pollution Control Standards Workshop, 4:00-7:00 p.m. Location: Henderson Public Library, 111S. Main St., Henderson, KY

April 16 - Ohio River Pollution Control Standards Workshop, 4:00- 7:00 p.m. Location: Holiday Inn Airport, 1717 Airport Exchance Blvd., Erlanger, KY

April 21 - Ohio River Pollution Control Standards Workshop, 4:00-7:00 p.m. Location: Holiday Inn Meadowlands, 340 Racetrack Rd., Washington, PA

April 23 - Ohio River Pollution Control Standards Workshop, 4:00-7:00 p.m. Location: Boyd County Public Library (main branch), 1740 Central Ave., Ashland, KY

April 28 - Ohio River Pollution Control Standards Workshop, 4:00-7:00 p.m. Location: Louisville Water Company Water Tower, 3005 River Rd., Louisville, KY

(January 2008-)

ORSANCO has hired a firm to conduct a recreational survey of users of the Ohio River. Information gathered will be used to consider any modifications in the recreational water quality standard. Completion of the survey is planned for Q3/Q4 2008.

(October 5, 2006) ORSANCO voted today to send the proposed standards back to its technical group for further review. It also voted in favor of having a Use Attainability Assessment (UAA) performed to determine what changes could be done to the standards. UNFORTUNATELY, it did approve a provision that will continue to allow elevated levels of mercury to be discharged into the river until 2013 and even possibly increase the amount entering the river.

(August 2006)

The formal written comment period and public hearings have concluded. More than 200 people attended the five public hearings, ten thousand postcards were delivered from concerned citizens, and comments sent by more than 50 concerned companies and organizations...all in opposition to the proposals.

FACT SHEET

Proposal Documents:

Proposal summary Draft standards-text Additional issues for comment Q & A

Take Action -

Even though the time has passed to formally file a comment (comment deadline was May 31, 2006) and attend a public hearing, you can still have your voice heard.

Express your concern and opposition by writing to ORSANCO. It is imperative that the public speak out and tell ORSANCO how they feel about these proposals. Above is fact sheet with talking points. Below are links to send letters to ORSANCO commissioners.

Commissioner Contact Information

You may also send letters to the editors of your local newspapers and your congressional representatives.

Additional Information from the ORSANCO website

For more information or to find out how you can help, please contact us!

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