Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission Annual Report 2018 Table of Contents to the President and Governors 2
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission Annual Report 2018 Table of Contents To the President and Governors 2 Chairman’s Message 3 ORSANCO States: Working Together to Protect the Ohio River and its Uses 5 Protecting Drinking Water 6 Protecting Aquatic Life 8 Protecting Fish Consumption 11 Protecting Recreational Use 12 Investigating Current Water Quality Issues 13 Public Information, Education, and Outreach 17 2018 Resources Overview 22 ORSANCO Staff 23 Members of the Commission 25 1 To the President and Governors* The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) is an interstate water pollution control agency created in 1948 by the State of Illinois, the State of Indiana, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the State of New York, the State of Ohio, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the State of West Virginia with approval of the Congress of the United States. The Commissioners of ORSANCO respectfully submit the following fiscal report of activities for 2018 to: The Honorable Bruce Rauner The Honorable Tom Wolf Governor of Illinois Governor of Pennsylvania The Honorable Eric Holcomb The Honorable Ralph S. Northam Governor of Indiana Governor of Virginia The Honorable Matt Bevin The Honorable Jim Justice Governor of Kentucky Governor of West Virginia The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo and Governor of New York The Honorable Donald Trump The Honorable John R. Kasich President of the United States Governor of Ohio *As of June 30, 2018 2 Chairman’s Message 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of (ODS) and adding WVAW’s Kanawha Valley the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Compact. Water Plant to the ODS network. ORSANCO, along with its member states, the • Sponsoring a Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) federal government, businesses and industries, local Workgroup to coordinate and share Ohio government agencies, and many other stakeholders, River HAB research along with the US EPA, have together made great progress at improving Ohio USGS, and NOAA to analyze the cause of River water quality over the past 70 years. Just within a significant 2015 HAB event along the Ohio this past year, many accomplishments and successes River. ORSANCO also worked with a HAB have contributed to improving water quality in the continuous monitoring project along Ohio River Basin, including: with students from the University of Cincinnati to help provide real-time notification of • Responding to over 500 reports for potential potential HAB conditions on the river. spills impacting the Ohio River, such as the • Completing a year-long total load sampling release of a half million gallons of urea project on the lower Ohio River for a mercury ammonia nitrate from a catastrophic barge mass balance study. failure just downstream of Cincinnati, Ohio; a • Working together with the Ohio River Basin sunken vessel releasing oil into the Big Sandy Alliance (ORBA) and being selected, along River; an Ames Tool Plant fire in Parkersburg, with the Foundation for Ohio River Education West Virginia; and a shale gas well pad fire (FORE), as their fiscal sponsor. near Powhatan Point, Ohio. • Taking part in the signing ceremony for the • Working with local drinking water utilities to Second Amendment to the Ohio River Water analyze more than 15,000 river water samples Quality Trading Plan that was signed by Ohio, using ORSANCO’s Organics Detection System Indiana, and Kentucky this past October. 3 • Evaluating various alternatives for others. The Commission must continue to: 1) seek ORSANCO’s future role in water quality sustainable funding for the future, 2) evaluate the standards for the Ohio River and most appropriate role for its standards program, working extensively with ORSANCO’s 3) work with many partners, including the Ohio River advisory committees as well as listening to the Basin Alliance, 4) consider ORSANCO’s role in water comments and concerns from the general quantity and other water resource issues, 5) evaluate, public in evaluating these alternatives. mitigate, and educate the public about mercury • Engaging the public with many Ohio River loads in the Ohio River, and 6) continue research educational activities, including FORE’s on Harmful Algal Blooms. The Commission must award-winning River REACH program, the Life also not only focus on its technical programs and Below the Waterline mobile aquarium, and the research but also on public outreach. We must strive 29th annual Ohio River Sweep. to teach the public who we are, what we do, and most importantly, how much Ohio River water quality So much has happed over the course of this past has improved over the past 70 years. Together, year, but it is important to also look to the future and with ORSANCO’s partners and with the public, stay the course. ORSANCO could not remain strong we can stay the course…the course of maintaining with their commitment to Ohio River water quality and continually improving the quality of this great without the assistance and coordination among many national resource, the great and beautiful Ohio River. partners: ORSANCO’s member states, the US EPA, USACE, USGS, USCG, USFWS, NOAA, Emergency Response agencies, drinking water and wastewater utilities, industries, watershed organizations, advisory groups, dedicated and hard-working staff, and many 4 ORSANCO States: Working Together to Protect the Ohio River and its Uses Citizens in the Ohio River Basin use the river in various ways, and ORSANCO must protect these uses and help to improve water quality for the citizens of the Ohio River Valley. The Ohio River is a source of drinking water for over five million people, a major transportation route for coal and other energy products, and a natural resource for many plants and animals. ORSANCO works along with many other state and local agencies and organizations to provide safe drinking water, protect aquatic life, advise fish consumption, and guide citizens with decisions about recreational activities in and around the river. Evaluating the Ohio River for its Beneficial Uses: ORSANCO’s 305(b) Report Every two years, ORSANCO completes an assessment of Ohio River Water Quality Conditions (305(b) report). This report utilizes ORSANCO’s monitoring results to assess the degree to which the Ohio River’s beneficial uses are maintained. The assessments are guided by a 305(b) Coordinators Work Group composed of the states’ representatives. The report is utilized by the states in developing their state-wide lists of impaired waters. The most recent report was approved by the Commission at its June 2018 meeting. Four beneficial uses are assessed for the Ohio River including public water supply, aquatic life, fish consumption, and contact recreation. Each of these beneficial uses have various monitoring data and criteria that are used to determine if that particular use is met, or alternatively, impaired. Results of the 2018 assessments according to the four beneficial uses of the river include: Public Water Supply: The public water supply use is assessed based primarily on water utilities’ compliance with their treated drinking water quality requirements. In situations where a water utility cannot meet its water quality requirements because of Ohio River source water quality, the river would be designated as impaired for the public water supply use. Results of the assessment indicate that the entire Ohio River fully supports the public water supply use. Aquatic Life: For aquatic life, biological and chemical data are utilized in making assessments, with emphasis placed on direct biological measurements. The entire river was determined to fully support the aquatic life use. Fish Consumption: The fish consumption use is assessed based on historical water monitoring data for dioxin and PCBs and recent fish tissue contaminants data for mercury. The fish consumption use for the entire river is impaired due to dioxin and PCBs; however, the entire river was determined to fully support fish consumption for mercury. Contact Recreation: For contact recreation, ORSANCO conducts bacteria monitoring in six segments of the river with combined sewer overflows and also relies on results from historical monitoring for the remaining segments of the river. Based on recent and historical data, approximately two-thirds of the Ohio River is impaired for the contact recreational use. 5 intake downstream of the incident location) to measure Protecting levels of ammonia contamination. Timely water quality Drinking Water monitoring and analysis was critical to the drinking water utility in order to make the best water treatment Emergency Response management decisions to ensure the water was safe to The Ohio River is a vital natural resource that supplies use for drinking water purposes. drinking water to millions of people every day, supports a diverse aquatic ecosystem, and provides Organics Detection System recreational opportunities for swimmers, boaters and The Organics Detection System (ODS) is a voluntary, anglers. The Ohio River, however, is also a working cooperative effort involving water producers, river, providing the necessary water resources to industry, and ORSANCO to monitor volatile organic support industries for manufacturing and energy compounds (VOCs) in the Ohio River on the main production and a cost efficient commercial navigation stem and four Ohio River tributaries in the Basin. The system. With the industrial and commercial use of the primary purpose of ORSANCO’s ODS Network is to river comes the potential for accidental releases of monitor water quality conditions for the protection of pollutants that can contaminate the water and make it drinking water supplies. Benefits of the ODS include unsuitable for other uses. routine daily analysis of river water samples, remote access to each ODS site for real-time water quality ORSANCO serves a critical role in emergency spill monitoring from ORSANCO headquarters, and a response communications by providing notification of coordinated communications network to relay water spills and other incidents that could adversely affect quality disturbances to upstream and downstream sites water quality to state and federal emergency response during spill or unreported release events.