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Farm runoff, sewage among Nimishillen's ills
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Aug 19, 2007
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is kicking off a new review of the sprawling Nimishillen Creek watershed, which drains urban and rural areas reaching from Canton to Green, Hartville and Louisville.
An estimated 228,000 people live along Nimishillen and its three branches a modest stream system that has heavily flooded in recent years because water is reaching the creek at a faster rate and in greater volume.
The creek has numerous problems, but no overwhelming No. 1 problem, said Eric Akin, a planner with the Akron-based Northeast Ohio Four County Regional Planning & Development Organization (NEFCO).
''It's unlike the Cuyahoga River where dam removal (in Kent and Munroe Falls) was the solution,'' Akin said. ''It's a very diverse watershed with urban problems, suburban problems, farm problems, industrial problems, mining problems, gas-and-oil problems, erosion problems. . . .
It's got a little bit of everything and it is really a microcosm for Ohio.''
Addressing multiple issues will require a broad effort, he said.
The review, called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report, should be ready in draft form by November and in final form by early 2008, said Bill Zawiski, a river expert with the agency.
Such an analysis is required when streams fail to meet the guidelines for being fishable and swimmable under the federal Clean Water Act.
The biggest problem is that Nimishillen is surrounded by lots of people and paved surfaces as it flows through Hartville, Louisville, North Canton and Canton, Zawiski said.
It has been heavily dredged and modified over the years so that it is more of a storm drain than a stream, he said.
It also gets doses of festilizers and pesticides in water running off farms, he said.
Half of the homes in the watershed rely on septic systems, some of which are failing and hurting water quality, he said.
The stream is small yet it gets heavy doses of treated effluent from Canton's and Louisville's sewage plants, along with five other sewage plants and 65 industrial plants, he said.
That could lead the EPA to reduce the levels of phosphorus that the sewage plants can discharge, Zawiski said.
The Nimishillen Creek watershed covers 120,208 acres or 188 square miles in Green in Summit County and in Lake, Marlboro, Jackson, Plain, Nimishillen, Washington, Perry, Canton, Osnaburg and Pike townships in Stark.
The stream has three branches: One follows Interstate 77 through Canton, another flows east of North Canton from Hartville; and the third flows from Louisville.
Its main stem is 24 miles long. It empties into Sandy Creek, a Tuscarawas River tributary, near Bolivar in northern Tuscarawas County.
The EPA had initially planned to monitor for fish and aquatic insects along Nimishillen Creek in 2003 and 2004, but those efforts were washed out by heavy floods. That field work was completed in 2005.
Zawiski will rely on a newly released Nimishillen watershed report called a state action plan.
The 266-page report was compiled last spring by NEFCO with assistance from the Nimishillen Creek Watershed Partners, a grass-roots group.
The report, endorsed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the Ohio EPA, provides water-quality restoration and protection guidance for the watershed communities. It contains watershed inventory information, water-quality data and prioritized actions to protect and restore the creek.
That report also allows watershed communities to improve their eligibility for state and federal water-quality grants.
It can be found at http://www.uptuscwatershed.org.
What happens along Nimishillen Creek is important because it is a head-waters stream, thus affecting the Tuscarawas, Muskingum and Ohio rivers, said Pam Feagler, vice chairwoman of the watershed partners group.
''Protecting and preserving and paying attention to our creek is important. . . . It's a matter of responsibility,'' she said. ''We have to educate people and convince them that there is a lot they can do to help our streams.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is kicking off a new review of the sprawling Nimishillen Creek watershed, which drains urban and rural areas reaching from Canton to Green, Hartville and Louisville.
Get the full article here.
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