By DAVID A. MANN
What are the acceptable levels of cadmium and silver in the Ohio River?
What’s the proper way of measuring total and dissolved metals in the river?
And what’s the level of ammonia in the water supply before it gets to the local treatment plant?
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, commonly known as ORSANCO, is looking for public input on such matters.
Those levels and measurements are among items scheduled for changes in an upcoming update of the commission’s pollution control standards document. The document is revisited and updated every three years and the pollution standards are applied by the eight states that make up the commission — Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
Informal public hearings are scheduled in five different cities along the Ohio River. The closest ones are from 4 to 6 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. June 16 at Falls of the Ohio State Park in Clarksville.
An official public hearing — wherein a court reporter is present and public comment is put on the record — will be held at the Holiday Inn Cincinnati-Airport from 4 to 6 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. June 24. Written comment also will be accepted at: Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, 5735 Kellogg Ave., Cincinnati, OH, 45228.
The biggest news is what’s not included in the update. The agency made headlines when it first initiated it in 2006 and proposed lowering bacteria standards when the river was moving more than 2 mph.
At the time, officials argued that people are not supposed to be in contact with the river when it’s moving that fast anyway.
“The idea was that if the river was unsafe from a physical standpoint, than you wouldn’t worry about it being safe from a bacterial standpoint,” said Peter Tennant, deputy executive director of the agency.
Dropping the standards during those periods was proposed as a means of saving money for cities and towns along the river, which combine to spend billions to keep the river free of pollutants.
“That’s off the table until we can answer the very legitimate questions that people raised,” he said.
Among those issues are how the river is used recreationally and which bacterial indicators are used to determine whether those in contact with the river will become ill.
As to the updates on the table now, Tennant said, “I don’t see them being as controversial, but they are harder to understand.”
The idea is that residents can attend the informal meetings, such as the one in Clarksville, get an explanation of changes and ask questions, he said.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
• The pollution control standards update is available at orsanco.org
ABOUT ORSANCO
• The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission was established in 1948 to control pollution in the Ohio River Basin. The interstate commission represents eight states and the federal government. Member states include: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.
It operates programs to improve water quality in the Ohio River and its tributaries, including: setting waste water discharge standards; performing biological assessments; monitoring for the chemical and physical properties of the waterways; and conducting special surveys and studies.
It’s based in Cincinnati.
