Explanation
The purpose of this legislation is to authorize the Director of Public Utilities to enter into a yearly agreement with the National Center for Water Quality Research (NCWQR) at Heidelberg University to provide funding for the continued operation of the Tributary Loading Station on the Scioto River at Chillicothe in 2014 and to calculate the separate contributions of point-source and nonpoint-source loads of phosphorus in the Scioto watershed upstream of Chillicothe.
The NCWQR, founded in 1969 by Dr. David B. Baker, is a research organization within the science division of Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio. The Heidelberg Tributary Loading Program (HTLP) began in 1975, and the Scioto River at Chillicothe has been included in the HTLP since 1996. Presently there are 16 stations in the HTLP in Ohio and Michigan and in both the Ohio River and Lake Erie basins. The HTLP is funded by a combination of state and federal agencies, foundations and industries, and all of the resulting data, including those for the Scioto, are publicly available at the tributary download website.
Measurement of pollutant export from watersheds are used to compare the amounts of pollutants derived from diffuse nonpoint sources, such as agricultural and urban storm runoff, with contributions from point sources, such as sewage treatment plants. Detailed knowledge of concentrations and loads of nutrients and sediments exported through these river systems has added greatly to the understanding of the impacts of rural, largely agricultural land management practices on stream water quality and ultimately the quality of both the Ohio River and Lake Erie.
At the request of the Division of Sewerage and Drainage, the NCWQR will, in addition to their usual data analysis, obtain the best available data on point source loads to the Scioto River upstream of the monitoring station at Chillicothe and will compute the proportional contributions of point-source and non-point source ...
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