Our water was not impacted by East Palestine

The good news is that our rivers, streams, and groundwater are not connected with the runoff from the train derailment site in East Palestine, Ohio. In fact, they drain a totally different direction. The Great Miami River Watershed drains INTO the Ohio River – not the other way around. Water in the Ohio River is …

MCD General Manager Janet Bly to retire May 6

Like the organization she led, Janet Bly has had an understated but powerful impact on Ohio’s Miami Valley. On May 6, she retires as the Miami Conservancy District’s general manager. With a background in human resources, Ms. Bly joined the Miami Conservancy District (MCD) in 1994 after holding positions in manufacturing, health care, and city government. In 2002, she was named MCD’s general manager, responsible for leading the organization that provides flood protection, water stewardship, and outdoor recreation for communities along the Great Miami River.

Behind-the-scenes with MCD’s staff during high-water

By Ben Casper, operations and maintenance manager Great Miami River cities don’t flood, though average annual precipitation has been increasing. The MCD flood protection system was designed to protect 47,000 properties and keep 1 million people safe. The number of annual high-water events at MCD flood-control dams have been trending up for the past three …

Are you building for yesterday’s storm, or tomorrow’s?

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resource monitoring and analysis Any community that needs to replace or build a bridge, culvert, stormwater system, or conduct a floodplain analysis must compute peak stream flows during the design process. Understanding peak stream flows ensures the infrastructure will be designed large enough to handle rainfall and runoff. In …

The Year 2021: Redefining “Normal”

By Mike Ekberg, Manager of water resource monitoring and analysis At MCD, we track water movement into and out of the Great Miami River Watershed over long periods of time, spanning decades. The records generated at precipitation stations, stream gages, and observation wells enable MCD staff to track long-term trends in water resources. Water enters …

This year marks 100 years of flood protection by MCD

By Don O'Connor, Chief Engineer While there is a persistent fear of flooding in cities around the world, people and businesses along the Great Miami River go confidently about their lives hardly giving flooding a thought. Since 1922, homes and businesses have been protected by MCD’s system of five dry dams, retarding basins, 55 miles of levees, and …

PFAS Part IV – PFAS in Major Rivers of the Great Miami River Watershed

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resources monitoring and analysis Are PFAS compounds present in our rivers and if so at what levels or concentrations are they present?  Recent river water sampling by the Miami Conservancy District (MCD) shows some Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) compounds present in all of the major rivers. The results …

Private Wells – Test for a silent killer

By Mike Ekberg, MCD manager for water resources monitoring and analysis There may a silent killer lurking in private wells used for drinking water. Recent groundwater studies in our region show that drinking water in up to 20 percent of private wells contains high levels of arsenic. Long-term exposure to arsenic through drinking water is …

Using a market-based solution to improve water quality

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, water resources manager Guest contributor Although water quality in our rivers and streams has seen great improvements over the past few decades, about 40 percent still fail to meet water quality standards. Excess nutrients – nitrogen and phosphorus -- are a main cause. This failure is triggering additional regulations focused on …

Pollution shut down Toledo’s drinking water system – could it happen here?

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, manager for watershed partnerships Guest contributor Last year, pollution in Lake Erie halted Toledo’s delivery of its drinking water to 400,000 people for several days. It happened when water that Toledo pulls from the lake was found to have dangerously high levels of microcystin, a toxin that is produced by algae. Microcystin …