Oak Park Landscape & Water Garden Center - Swanton Reservoir

With all the talk about  Swanton ‘s water quality, we thought we would weigh in on the topic.  We feel uniquely qualified to do so because a large portion of our business is treating and providing aeration systems to lakes in Northern  Ohio,  many of which are the source of drinking water.  This is what we have found out.  Some of it is technical, we apologize for that.

We have observed the reservoir, and spoken with Mike Fields about some of his options in regard to improving the water quality for drinking – in particular, taste and odor problems.  We have gone so far as to give Mr. Fields rough estimates on cost to treat the algae in the reservoir and to install aeration.  Other than that, we only know what we read in the papers.

What we read was that a study would be conducted regarding the water quality problem.  The odd thing is, a pretty comprehensive study was done in 2006 by the Ohio EPA as part of:

Here is a link to the pages about the Swanton Reservoir in the study: Click Here

A number of recommendations were made by the Ohio EPA to remedy some of the problems at the Swanton Reservoir including managing the nutrients entering the reservoir from Swan Creek tributaries, dredging, aeration, and tying up the phosphates in the water column and binding them to the bottom. Were any of the EPA’s recommendations followed? Not to our knowledge. A ‘do nothing’ approach to the existing problems was taken. Here we are three years later, and it is only getting worse. So what is the village going to do now? Pay for another study? Do they expect a different result than the findings of the Ohio EPA? Couldn’t the village spend money toward the EPA recommendations rather than on another study?

So what does algae have to do with it? Types of blue-green algae produce MIB’s (2-methylisoborneol) and geosmin. These components are what you smell and taste in your water. Is the Swanton reservoir treated to control algae? No. In the past copper sulfate was used. So much so that, testing showed that the bottom of the reservoir contained 1650mg/kg of copper when an acceptable level is149mg/kg. Now the algae flows into the water plant and is treated with carbon, and chlorine among other things. The result of combining chlorine and algae is Trihalomethanes (THM) – that’s the stuff that we kept getting notices about in the past, that the Swanton reservoir was exceeding the allowable limits on. According to the EPA, THM’s account for liver, kidney, and nervous system problems as well as an increased risk of cancer.

According to Jon Gochenour, the village is limited in what they can do, because the resulting THM’s would put the treatment plant out of compliance.

There are things you can do – some of the things recommended by the EPA could be followed so that the algae blooms are lessened, and we are improving the reservoir, not letting it get worse. The reservoir can be treated for algae with some products that are safe and are able to be used in drinking water reservoirs. The problem is that they are trying to treat the water in the plant.  A better way to address the problem than a one million dollar carbon filtering system in the plant is to address the source of the water and the algae – that is the reservoir itself. That is what the EPA made recommendations on – improving the health of the reservoir – not adding another million dollar experimental device to the water plant.

OR we could do nothing – maybe study it for awhile – what’s the harm in that? This is a seventy year old lake that needs to be managed if we are to be able to keep using it. Now that we have a new million dollar plus water treatment plant, wouldn’t it be a shame if we couldn’t pull water from the reservoir that it sits next to?

To make matters worse, we have observed an exotic water weed (Eurasian milfoil) in the reservoir that has created havoc in other reservoirs if not dealt with in a timely manner.  The infestation is somewhat small right now, but this plant can grow a foot per week and spreads rapidly. Getting rid of an extensive infestation is very expensive, but getting rid of a small infestation before it gets worse is not so expensive.That extensive infestation could easily occur next year.

DOING NOTHING IS AN OPTION, but in our opinion it is a bad option and an extremely costly one. Delaying action is also a bad and costly option. Testing of our reservoir was done in the summer of 2006 by the Ohio EPA for the Swan Creek study. It was published March 20, 2009. Lakes don’t get better by neglecting them or hoping the problems will miraculously solve themselves – it takes management and a plan that is followed up on.

Related Links:

Click here to see the full version of the report referenced in this letter.

Click here to see an article about the same problem in the Phoenix area.