From the West Virgina Chemical Spill to the Cincinnati Oil Spill: How do we Protect the Ohio

River Watershed? Status of the Ohio River 2014

By Michael C. Miller

Ohio River Basin Consortium for Research and Education & Professor Emeritus University of

Cincinnati, Biology

League of Women Voters, Columbus, OH April 9, 2014

Understand the Threats to Ohio River Watershed

1. Threat of spills: chemicals, crude oil, coal

slurry, chemicals, fracking waste. 2. Invasive fish species: silver carp 3. Toxic transfers to fish: Hg, PCBs 4. Hydrofracking threat, bromide indicator 5. Nutrients and Chlorophyll Trends 6. Zebra Mussel Invasion, induction of

Microcystis.

Despite abuse, channelization, levies, and lock and dams, the Clean Water Acts 1972 and loss of rust-belt industries, the Ohio River Ecosystem is functional with most of the original species and biodiversity in tact. The Ecosystem Services of the Ohio River serve us very well. Lets Keep it Healthy.

OHIO RIVER WATERSHED in 9 states Watershed Area: 204,000 mi2529,000 km2 Discharge: 308,400 ft3/s 8,733 m3/s Length: 979 mi 1,575 km

Wabash R

White R

GMR LMR

Sciota R

Muskingum R.

Tennessee R.

Cumberland R

Green R

Licking R.

Kentucky R Big Sandy R

Kanawha R

Monongehla R

Allegheny R

Tennessee R.

The Ohio River’s major tributaries are the

Tennessee, Cumberland, Kentucky, Wabash and Kanawha Rivers.

The Ohio River Watershed • Ohio River Basin encompasses approximately 204,430 square miles (130.5 million

acres). Over 27 million people live within the basin, almost 10 percent of the U.S. population.

• Ohio River contributes over 60% of the flow in the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. There are over 400 power generation facilities (coal, oil, gas, hydropower, biofuels, nuclear and wind) in the basin. (ORB website)

Discharge Controls Ohio River Ecosystem

Flow

Nutrients

Light

ALGAL PHOTOSYNTHESIS

• Aulocoseira

• MicrocystisA

Paddlefish

Silver Carp

Zooplankton

Net Spinning caddisflies

Zebra Mussel Filtering

Filter Feeders on Algae.

Simplified Food Web Ohio River

Largemouth Bass

Hybrid Stripe Bass

Shovelhead Catfish

Sauger

Small Bass

Yellow Perch

Sunfish

Gizzard Shad

Skipjack Herring

Emerald Shiner

FW Drum

Zebra Mussel Benthic Invertebrates

Deep-bodied Suckers Carp

Catfish

Plankton Zooplankton, Algae Fine Particulate Organic Matter

Oil Spill Diesel Spill

Coal Slurry Spill Hg Methyl Mercury

Nutrients N & P Endocrine Disrupters Chlorodane,DDT

Accidental Spills

Spring of 2014 has more spills than normal as well as chronic pollutants

Ohio River Watershed is Industrial 1. Loss of black coal pond slurry and washing agents 2014 2. Loss of crude oil from pipeline break 2014 3. Loss of river side tanks of Ammonia Nitrate 2000 4. Loss of Jim Bean Whiskey 1996..

5. Chronic loss of coal dust and Calcium Carbonate dust and construction aggregate at loading unloading facilities.

6. Chromium spill with a chemical precipitant in Ohio R 1999

I. SPILLS: Recent Hazards to Ohio River Health

Over 230 million tons of cargo are transported on the Ohio River each year. Coal and other energy products make up approximately 70 percent of the commerce in barge tows.

Coal Mining Slurry Spills • The event is the third time in less than two months

that West Virginia has experienced a coal-related pollutant spill into its waters. On Feb. 11, 2014, a pipe break at a Patriot Coal preparation site spewed more than 100,000 gallons of coal slurry into a waterway near Charleston. Runoff from melting snow overran sediment control ponds at a slurry impoundment, sending polluted water into a creek. Coal slurry contains a variety of substances that are likely more toxic than Crude MCHM & polyethylene glycol. It contains heavy metals, like iron, manganese, aluminum and selenium.

• http://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/water/news/west-virginia-chemical-spill/

Water quality samples collected at Greater Cincinnati Water Works' (GCWW) intakes show the Elk River Spill has passed through the Cincinnati area. The chemical, identified as 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, is not detectable by normal water sample for organics. GCWW has been collecting Ohio River water samples and carefully monitoring the Ohio River since the chemical spilled into the Elk River last week near Charleston, West Virginia. The compound that spilled into the Elk River is used to wash and prepare coal for sale. The chemical can cause vomiting, dizziness, rashes and diarrhea if ingested or if a person comes in contact with it, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. The GCWW developed a GCMS protocol to detect it at 4 ppb and a human smell protocol to its sweet smell sensitive to 1 ppb. With EPA, they monitored the plume down river. As a result, Greater Cincinnati Water Works closed it intakes from 4:00am until 2:00pm

Elk River Spill of Coal Washing Agent

http://www.ringoffireradio.com/2014/02/coal-slurry-spill-west-virginia-pollutes-fields-creek/

Oil Spill Oak Glen Nature Preserve, Great Parks Hamilton County.

Fifty year old Sunoco-owned Mid-Valley Pipeline leaks pipeline leaks (20,000 gallons of crude oil Friday to Tues. into a wetland preserve. Removal will require a road and excavation of contaminated soils (March 18-21, 2014).

Oil Spill Cleanup Cincinnati, OH. Oil water reached Great Miami River Friday 4 Apr after 3” of rain. Pipe patched. Oil flowed down stream to old gravel pit pond. Oiled wildlife: Snapping turtle, salamanders migrating to water to breed. Tankers of oil contaminated waer were pumped from the ponds.

• Oikl

Sunoco Pipeline Leaks 2014,2009,2008,2005

• This is at least the third time in the last six years that oil has leaked from the pipeline in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. In February 2009, cold temperatures caused a leak of eight barrels (or 248 gallons) of crude oil in Burlington. The spill caused $33,900 in property damage.

• A much larger spill occurred in Burlington in October 2008, after construction crews struck the line, sending 189,000 gallons of crude oil gushing. Eighty homes in the area were evacuated. Some of the oil ended up in the sanitary sewer system and in Gunpowder Creek. After that spill, Sunoco Logistics officials said the line carried about 238,000 barrels per day to refineries in Ohio.

• In January 2005, the same pipeline ruptured near Carrollton, sending 260,000 gallons of oil into the Kentucky River. The slick fouled a large section of the Kentucky River, killed some aquatic life and forced Louisville officials to take precautions with drinking water from the Ohio.

• Heaven Hill Distillery Fire in November 17 1996. Seven warehouses

at Heaven Hill containing 90,000 barrels of whisky burned out of control, fanned by wind gusts of up to 75 mph. The barrels contained about 45 gallons of bourbon. As the warehouses collapsed, bourbon poured out. Jim Beam will pay $26,732.33 to the state to compensate for an estimated 19,000 fish that died when bourbon seeped into Withrow Creek and the Salt River, tribs to Kentucky R. Seventeen species of fish, including largemouth bass, catfish, paddlefish, sunfish and drum, were killed following the blaze. The fish were killed by a combination of exposure to a lethal concentration of alcohol and by a lack of oxygen in the water that occurs after microorganisms use up too much of the oxygen. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/979415/post

Ammonia Nitrate Fertilizer Spill, Cincinnati 2000

• Southside River Rail officials more than doubled the estimated amount of the liquid Ammonia Nitrate solution that spilled when a holding tank burst Saturday afternoon on Southside Avenue along the Ohio River (Jan. 9, 2000). The company also said the cause may have been a structure failure in the tank's welding. The company said Thursday as much as 990,000 gallons of the fertilizer was in the tank when it failed, Southside spokeswoman Jody Mangeot said. About 108,000 gallons were eventually recovered, but 882,000 gallons of the solution were lost. Wednesday afternoon, officials at the Louisville Water Co. began noticing traces of ammonia nitrate, likely from the Cincinnati spill.

• Like the ELK RIVER SPILL containment was not up to code to hold the contents of storage tanks.

http://enquirer.com/editions/2000/01/14/loc_fertilizer_spills.html

Elkem Metals Company, L.P., spilled metal coagulant loaded with toxic levels of Chromium on the northern bank of the Ohio River, about four miles southwest of Marietta, Ohio Sept-Oct 1999.

• Both zebra and native mussels were directly exposed by filtering particulates from contaminated water near the bottom of the Ohio River. Fish species, primarily freshwater drum which are known to feed on mussels, were then exposed by consumption of the contaminated mussels. Documented injuries within a five-mile reach of the Ohio River from release of hazardous substances by a ferro-alloy manufacturing facility resulting in high sediment Chromium.

Fish (estimated over 8,600 killed), including freshwater drum, sauger, hybrid striped bass, channel catfish, bluegill, walleye, gizzard shad, and suckers. Freshwater mussels estimated over 990,000 killed in 26 species (some endangered), Gastropods (snails--estimated over 12,000,000 killed)

http://www.fws.gov/midwest/es/ec/nrda/documents/ohioriverrpeafinal.pdf

II. Invasive Fish Hypothesis: Invasive species will expand a function of

food density, especially eutrophic waters.

Most invasive species feed near the bottom of the food chain: benthivores and planktivores.

Most invasive species do not have a predator that could potentially control their growth.

Most invasive species enter an ‘empty food niche’.

Some exotic fish are planted for fishermen: Hybrid stripers, Saugeye.

Invasive fish are pervasive in the lower and middle Ohio River.

Silver carp have moved to Cincinnati. GMR, LMR, and Licking are likely plankton

rich targets • The discovery of the silver carp this week at the mouth of the Great Miami

River in far western Hamilton County (RM 491) is a first in the Cincinnati region, and biologists say their arrival is bad news for everyone. They say the carp not only will spread along the Ohio River, but up tributaries such as the Great Miami, the Licking River and others.

• The carp invasion joins a growing list of foreign species, such as the zebra mussel and the emerald ash borer, that have wreaked havoc on land and in water since coming to America.

• Silver carp, one of several varieties commonly referred to as Asian carp, arrived in North America decades ago when catfish farmers imported them to eat algae in their ponds. Thanks to floods and poor oversight, the carp escaped and made their way into rivers and lakes throughout the United States.

• They moved steadily up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers for years, infesting tributaries and lakes along the way. until now, scientists thought they’d only made it as far as Louisville on the Ohio.

Jun. 29, 2012

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120629/NEWS/306290108&Ref=AR

Map Distribution 2010

Large populations of Asian Carp are found in both Kentucky and Barkley lakes in western Kentucky, and most backwater lakes in western Kentucky associated with the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

These species have also been found in most of their tributaries including the Tennessee, Cumberland, Green and Kentucky rivers along with several others. Recently, Asian Carp have been found in the tailwaters of Taylorsville Lake (Salt River), Green River Lake (Green River) and are assumed to be in the Barren River Lake tailwaters (Barren River).

Silver Carp Moving up River to Little Miami.

• Jeff Thomas, the manager of biological programs for the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission in Cincinnati, discovered the first school of silver carp in Ohio waters two weeks ago. The silver carp were easy to spot at the mouth of the Little Miami River near Cincinnati. They were jumping all over the place, an action provoked by vibrations of a boat's outboard motor.

By D'Arcy Egan, The Plain Dealer on July 13, 2012 at 6:01 P

Ronny Hopkins, a commercial fisherman from Ledbetter who fishes Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley in Western Kentucky. Hopkins said he has caught 36,000 pounds of carp in six hours. Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/01/01/2461567/large-asian-carp-jump-breed-quickly.html#storylink=cpy

Big-headed Carp is on its way

upstream below Louisville

AP file photo

• This 47-lb. bighead Asian carp was caught on the Ohio River in 2007 by a Macedonia angler. Scientists say it's not uncommon to find individual Asian carp in the Ohio, but that a breeding and thriving population has not made it past the falls and dam at Louisville, Ky.

• We caught two small ones in the Mississippi River during the 2003 flood above St. Louis.

II. Toxics in fish • Toxics organic compounds in fish are often

concentrated in lipids: DDT, Chlordane, Methyl mercury. Many chlorinated compounds are not degraded by microorganisms and persist for decades: DDT, Chlordane, PCBs.

• Toxic metals are taken up as functional groups that behave physiologically like essential elements.

• Toxic materials enter from point sources (PCBs, Pb, Cd) and aerial distribution (Hg, Sulfate).

• ORSANCO finds all 981 miles restrict fish consumption (2012)

Fattest fish are paddlefish, carp and catfish. Predators have lowest lipids

Old Insecticide is lipid soluble and mimics % Lipids in fish species

Methyl mercury ought to be lipid soluble, but is obviously high in predators & low in fattest fish

Cadmium metal appears highest in bottom feeding fish & some predators but is 1/10th that of Mercury in the Ohio River

Year

III. FRACKING BRINE RUNOFF • Build out of fracking wells in Muskingum and

Sciota River Watersheds may lead to a episodic or chronic contamination of Bromide in Ohio.

• Danger signs of Bromide, Br-,seen in the upper Ohio River watersheds draining the more mature gas play in Pennsylvania.

• Lets look at the effect of watershed wide extraction of coal in the Big Sandy as an example of what may happen in a mature play.

• Horizontal drilled Hydrofracked wells in Marcellus Shale for dry gas and in Utica shales under it for ‘wet gas’. Shales underlie OH, PA, WV, and NY. Much of the frack fluids and produced brine is disposed of in Class II Injection wells in Ohio.

Potential >168 trillion cu ft. Alaska = 26 trillion cu ft

Oil/Gas Wells OHIO

• Marcellus and Utica shales are an under-developed play with only 810 horizontal drilled wells (1202 permits granted), but bulid out will generate 10,000 wells. We have 64,000 active wells in Ohio now.

Class II Waste Injection wells in Ohio

PA has 6, OH has 187 wells that earn $0.20/bbl for imported waste and $0.05/bbl for local Ohio waste.

Where will the fracking waste go? Ohio’s Class II Injection Wells. From a volume-injected perspective, 1.480 and 1.813 million barrels of waste fluids were received in and out of district, respectively, with averages of 3,096 and 3,793 barrels per well for a total of 35 million barrels 2010-2013 (1.47 B gallons)

Should USGS allow shipment Marcellus/Utica brine by barge to Texas and Oklahoma where many injection wells are located? Why?

Advantages: 1) NIMBY : Ship it to someone else.

• 2) Takes transport off Ohio roads & rail.

• 3) Eliminates risk of injection well accidents, quakes or later eruptions.

Disadvantages: 1) Allows unrestrained development of PA,OH,WV shales.

• 2) Increases risk of spillage by storage and two transfers on and off trucks or rail and on and off barges.

• 3) Increases risk of barge sinking and spilling waste in Ohio & Mississippi Rivers.

Fracking-Produced Brine has been disposed of in Ohio River Tributaries. Brine is enriched

with Bromide as a marker. • Puzzled officials have ordered research and haven't pinpointed a

cause -although many suspect the natural gas drilling industry is responsible. Bromides are from seawater, and that is where the gas deposits exist, deep underground where the gas wells tap ancient seabeds under modern Ohio. Bromide is a chemical salt that forms substances called trihalomethanes when raw water is chlorinated and treated by a a drinking water plant like the Cincinnati Water Works.”

• Documents from ORSANCO, a multi-state agency in Cincinnati that monitors water quality in the Ohio River, show bromide levels have soared, which is spooking officials. Earlier this year, the agency was told: "Bromide levels in the River are increasing, with some recent high concentrations four to five times higher than the levels found several years ago. Bromide levels have put several utilities close to exceeding EPA's disinfection criteria." In June, ORSANCO ordered, "Research should continue with an emphasis on bromide." No source of the bromide spike is identified, but the rise in Ohio River levels appears to coincide with a boom in natural gas drilling that began in 2008.

http://thebellwetherdaily.blogspot.com/2011/12/ohio-river-is-increasingly-contaminated.html

Percent brominated TriHaloMethanes in OR Drinking water vs water conc. Br.

ORSANCO 2014

Bromide will change drinking water disinfection for the Ohio River drinking water utilities as trihalomethanes become problematic.

IV. NUTRIENTS and RIVER CHEMISTRY

• N:P:C are used in a molar ratio of 14:1:106. PO4 cycles only in water. Nitrogen cycles through water and gaseous cycles. Gaseous N2 can be fixed biologically by cyanobacteria, like Anabaena & Aphanizomenon.

• Availability of nutrients to algae is a function of light availability & turbulence, both controlled by discharge in rivers. A high discharge the turbidity restricts light penetration and algal growth.

July-Nov.

July-Nov.

ORSANCO

Median = 3.5 ug chlor/liter Average = 5.9 ug chlor/liter

Conclusion: OR may be P-limited at low summer discharge.

• Point source TP is used biologically in the estuary at the mouth of big tributaries at low discharge. The Ohio River mainstem is P-limited at low flows supporting only 5 ug algal chlorophyll a/liter.

• Algal mass did not change between 2000-2007 and little change from Pittsburgh to Cairo in any given week.

• Algae are light limited by turbidity driven by current suspended silts and clays.

V. Zebra Mussels Dreissena Polymorpha

The Zebra mussels were transported to the Ohio River by barges from Lake Michigan down the Illinois River in 1993.

The zebra mussels have a planktonic larvae and do not use a fish host. They expanded to maximum numbers of 3-year olds in 1997 & 1998 and have not be a problem since. Drum & ducks have learned to eat them attached to surfaces.

In first Year mussels reach 1 cm and sexual maturity and can filter enough to clear the water, but cause blooms of Microcystis aeruginosa which they will not consume by late August and Sept.

Zebra Mussels in the Ohio River • Young-of-the-year settled on 5 Dendy Plate

samplers(6.5 ft^2) reflected the filtering intensity on the plankton in the river, being seriously high in 1998 and 1999. Since then the young survival were highest in 2002 and 2010.

• Zebra mussels sort their ingested food, expelling cyanobacteria, especially Microcystis and Lyngbya in their pseudofeces. This removes good digestable diatoms allowing only Cyanobacteria to dominate in late summer.

What has not changed in the Ohio River? Algal dominance by Aulocoseira granulata

since the 1950’s when the river was grossly polluted by industrial and untreated sewage. Water qualtiy has improved since with sewage plants & industry loss.

In August and September 2010, algal blooms were reported in both the upper and lower Ohio River. Drinking water utilities reported taste and odor issues and filter clogging, which adds to the cost of treating water. The taste and oder algae are dominated by Microcystis aeruginosa, which produces a hepatotoxin, Microcystin. Microcystis dominates when zebra mussel filtering is high & they get bigger in warm, low flow years like 2007 & 2010.

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985

Water Q

uality P

CA

Diatom Aulocoseira

Cyanobacteria Microcystis

Zooplankton Base of foodchain for many fish • Zooplankton in Ohio River are more diverse than

any surface waters in the basin, but the diversity of larger, slower developing species is restricted by flow (wash out rate) and was highest in backwater estuaries.

• Population growth rates of Bosmina were the most consistent of all taxa followed by cyclopoids. Bosmina population growth rates were negatively correlated with turbidity (R2 = 0.392), and Daphnia with discharge, but only slightly (R2 = 0.397). Cyclopoids correlated negatively with Keratella population growth rates (R2 = 0.371), a sign of biotic interactions taking place. Furthermore, Ohio River zooplankton community assemblages appear altered by navigation dams within the same navigational pool (upstream and downstream sites

Keratella Polyarthra

Bosmina

Cyclops

Daphnia

Diaphanosma

Great River Fish of the Ohio R.

Blue Catfish Paddlefish Shovelnose Sturgeon Goldeneye/Mooneye Alligator Gar

River Darter

Extirpated OR

Demise of Steel and Clean Water Act (1972) have reduce tolerant species and enhanced native species in OR. •High dams have increased lake species and carp dominates biomass, but only 4 species of 105 have been extirpated Detection

of Temporal Trends in Ohio River Fish Assemblages Based on Lockchamber Surveys

(1957–2001)

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

Nu

mb

er o

f n

ativ

e sp

ecie

s P

erce

nt

Tole

ran

t S

pec

ies

carp white sucker

JEFF A. THOMAS AND ERICH B. EMERY FRANK H. MCCORMIC KAmerican Fisheries Society Symposium 00:000–000, 2004© 2004 by the American Fisheries Society

Mussels Threatened • At the turn of the

century, the Ohio River Basin was home to 127 of the 297 freshwater mussel species native to North America.

• 11 mussel species are now extinct, and 46 others are now classified as endangered or species of concern (USFWS).

With a complex lifecycle, its larvae attach parasitically to the gills or fins of a particular species or a small set of fish species. They may be threatened by water quality, siltation, zebra mussels, or loss of fish host ar right time of year.

Ohio River & Gulf Hypoxia Because of a rainfall gradient

from East to West, the Ohio River contributes 60% of the water to the Mississippi River at St. Louis, more than the Missouri & Upper Miss. R. combined.

Although the concentrations of NO3-N is less in the Ohio R., the N-load (and P-load) of the Ohio is greatest of the three .

In drought yr 2012, 58,100 metric tons of N enter Gulf from Miss. R. Most of the Nitrate is discharged with spring rains in April & May from agricultural row crops (Corn, Soy Bean)

GULF OF MEXICO HYPOXIA

http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/research/Shelfwide%20Cruises/all_cruises.asp http://www.gulfhypoxia.net/Overview/hypoxia_flash.asp

2013

The largest dead zone, also called a hypoxic zone, measured to date occurred in 2002 encompassing more than 8,400 square miles. The average size of the dead zone over the past five years has been 5,684 square miles. During the 2012 drought year the zone measured approximately 2,889 square miles, an area slightly larger than Delaware. By PoliticalNews.me 21 February 2014 Washington, D.C. – Bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act of 2013, passed the United States Senate

1. Proliferation of plankton feeding silver and big-headed carp could change zooplankton species and reproductive success of the planktonic zebra mussel veligers.

2. Build out of fracking wells could lead to watershed contamination with Bromide & TDS in produced water, affecting water treatment up and down the Ohio River by producing Tribromomethanes in chlorinated drinking water.

3. Toxic compounds are behavior and reproductive success in many fish species, in addition to reducing safe consumption to one fish meal a week.

4. Nutrient loading coupled with increased peak flows and low flows with climate change could lead to algal biomass & species shifts and enlarge Gulf of Mexico hypoxia zone.

5. Zebra mussel density is now controlled by predators on the young tender mussels in late autumn and winter (fish, ducks, geese, muskrat) keeping densities low.

6. Accidental Spills are common and likely to get commoner if USGS allows fracking brine to be transferred to and from barges and transported to reinjection sites along the Ohio/Mississippi River.

7. Algae, zooplankton, and fish have not changed, much except for introduced exotics. River is very robust.

CONCLUSIONS

Ohio River Ecosystem Services are still functional and critical to us.

Ecosystems provide "services" that enhance our needs: They reduce our costs because they…….

• moderate weather extremes and their impacts

• mitigate drought and floods

• cycle and move nutrients

• protect stream and river channels and coastal shores from erosion

• detoxify and decompose wastes .

• maintain biodiversity to keep ecosystems functioning.

• contribute to climate stability.

• purify and provide clean air and water.

The Ohio River Ecosystem provides ecosystem services to us are largely

unchanged Many human activities disrupt, impair or reengineer ecosystems

every day including:

• runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and animal wastes

• pollution of land, water, and air resources with toxics or pathogens.

• introduction of non-native species like silver & big headed carp

• overharvesting fisheries like large piscivores or mussels.

• destruction of wetlands to treat & slow flood waters.

• erosion of soils from barren river banks & row crop agriculture.

• deforestation removes evaporative cooling and increases runoff.

• urban sprawl makes impervious surface, sewage, toxic products.

http://www.esa.org/ecoservices/comm/body.comm.fact.ecos.htm

Fish Index Used by OEPA shows improvement every 10-15 years in lower Great Miami River

EWWH

WWH

Large Rivers in Ohio are Healthy today and improving.

Meets CWA standard

Big Rivers in Ohio are largely clean by 2000. LMR is 100% blue by 2007. OEPA evaluates fish,

macroivertebrates, water and sediment chemistry and habitate quality for fish every 10-15 years.

What can you do? • Slow and regulate fracking development with

zoning and traffic volume laws locally. Support well head tax on gas & oil extraction.

• Hold water in rain barrels, rain gardens or ponds 1-2 days. Plant trees to shade, evaporate water and sequester nutrients in you yard and parks. Support watershed level planning.

• Do not transport exotic species in boats or bait buckets between rivers and lakes.

• Support low till, no till farming. Eat green organic foods and less red meat. Put CAFO regulation back into the OEPA.