Every public water system in Ohio that relies on groundwater has a defined source water protection area. A source water protection area is a map of all the land area over the aquifers which provide drinking water to a particular public water system.  It is the responsibility of each municipal public water system to develop a plan to ...

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 not physically able ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resources monitoring and analysis Municipal public water systems in Ohio are required to test drinking water for contaminants on a regular basis. For many parameters, that is daily. This helps to ensure the water they produce is safe for consumers to drink. Private well owners, on the other hand, are not ...

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 r ...

By Mike Ekberg and Richard Stuck Most of us know that too much salt is unhealthy for the body, raising blood pressure for example. Well, apparently it can be unhealthy for our water, too. As the saltiness or salinity of groundwater increases above naturally occurring levels, so does its potential to harm aquatic life and to damage drinki ...

By Mike Ekberg, Manager of water resources monitoring and analysis The drought headlines coming out of the western US are sobering. UPDATE May 3, 2022 - A link to a more recent story on the drought in the west is here. "The West is in the midst of a very serious megadrought," said USDA Chief Meteorologist Mark Brusberg in ...

In Part I, we looked at what per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, are and why you should care. In Part II, we look at the impact to our drinking water. Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances or PFAS are a group of manufactured chemicals widely used in consumer products such as cookware, pizza boxes, stain repellants, an ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resource monitoring and analysis You've probably heard about PFAS, but what are they and why are they such a hot topic today? Amazing chemicals PFAS or per- and polyflouroalkyl substances are a group of chemicals developed in the 1940s that can repel water, dirt, and grease; tolerate high temperatures; m ...

MCD has created a new series of videos about the importance of water. Many people in the Miami Valley don’t know where our water comes from, how it’s replenished or the ways water is used beyond our daily life activities. They don’t know what an aquifer is or how it works. Or how many industries rely on groundwater and how high-qual ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resources monitoring and analysis The US Postal Service is often lauded for delivering the mail in all kinds of weather—rain, snow, sleet, etc. But delivering, or in our case, protecting, in bad weather is kind of our thing. And for the past two weekends, our staff took it to another level, protecting o ...

MCD has released a new report on Water Stewardship that discusses the region's water challenges and how communities can take action and build resiliency to address those challenges.. Mike Ekberg, MCD manager of water resources monitoring and analysis, and Sarah Hippensteel Hall, manager of watershed partnerships, are currently visit ...

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Ph.D., manager for watershed partnerships Many of us never think twice about groundwater—where it comes from, how much there is, or how to protect it. We just turn on the spigot and water flows. But maybe it’s time to think for a minute about this amazing resource that keeps us all alive, literally. Think ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager of water resources monitoring and analysis Our region is ready to be the hub of water knowledge and know-how. Initiatives are under way in southwest Ohio to position our region as a leader in water research and technology development to help deal with world water challenges such as scarcity and contamination. On ...

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Ph.D., manager for watershed partnerships Most of us go to some lengths to protect our health. We may have an annual physical to catch issues early because we know how hard it can be to fix something once it’s broken. The same is true of our aquifer – the underground source of this region’s drinking wate ...

There’s nothing like a tall, cool glass of water when you’re hot and thirsty (despite this week's cold, you will be hot again). But, do you know where your drinking water comes from? If you live in the Miami Valley, chances are your water comes from the buried valley aquifer. When it comes to water, our region’s buried ...

By Mike Ekberg, MCD manager for water resources monitoring and analysis MCD staff recently found artificial sweeteners in five of 12 groundwater samples. The samples were collected from monitoring wells installed in the buried valley aquifer. This is further proof that many of the chemicals we flush down a toilet, rinse down a sink, or a ...

By Mike Ekberg, MCD manager for water resources monitoring and analysis You may have heard me say this before—southwest Ohio is water rich. We have abundant, high-quality, water when compared with other parts of our country and the world. Yet, our region is not without challenges in managing water. Here are five water trends that m ...