By Mike Ekberg, manager of water monitoring and analysis Drastically reducing nutrient discharges from wastewater treatment plants won’t be enough to further improve water quality in the Great Miami River from Troy to just downstream of Fairfield, Ohio. That’s what a study,funded by 15 regional wastewater treatment plants and cities, ...

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Ph.D., manager for watershed partnerships The project to remove the Tait Station low dam begins today. Here are the latest details on the project. Q: Why is the Tait Station low dam being removed? The low dam is being removed for several reasons: To improve the quality of the river and make better habitat ...

By Elizabeth Connor, Riverway Coordinator Nothing can ruin a good ride along the Great Miami River Recreation Trail like discovering midway that the trail is submerged from a recent storm. But that’s about to be a thing of the past. You can now Find Your Way a whole lot easier with the Great Miami Riverway’s new website, featuring a ...

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Ph.D., manager of watershed partnerships Spring weather has FINALLY arrived! You are probably thinking about getting outside to enjoy a bike ride on the trails or launch your kayak in the beautiful river. Before you go, did you know MCD provides maps, trail conditions, day trip recommendations, safety guideline ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager for water monitoring and analysis Groundwater may seem mysterious. You can’t see it. You can’t hear it. You can’t touch it. Yet, it may be the most important resource we have because, quite simply, we can’t live without water. While this region has plenty of good quality groundwater, we can’t take it for ...

By Mike Ekberg, manager for water monitoring and analysis Last year was a wet one for the Miami Valley region, continuing a trend we’ve been seeing for a while now. The chart below shows how the 30-year average annual precipitation for the Great Miami River has changed since 1945. Note the upward trend, especially since about 1995. ...

By Sarah Hippensteel Hall, Ph.D.,Manager for Watershed Partnerships Last month we discussed how green development can reduce flooding, save money, reduce energy use, and improve public health. This month we want to key in on a few of the more popular green development practices and their incentives. Rain gardens filter out pollutants a ...

By Mike Ekberg, MCD manager for water resources monitoring and analysis Did you know MCD tracks precipitation, groundwater levels, and flow in rivers and streams? This information helps MCD and its partner agencies with flood forecasting, groundwater quantity monitoring, and understanding water movement into and out of the Great Miami Ri ...

The year 2015 has come to a close and before we get too far into 2016, I thought it might be interesting to review the year from a hydrologic perspective given all the recent attention to El Niño and the December 27-30 high water event on the Great Miami River and its tributaries. All in all, 2015 was a continuation of a rising tre ...

When you think of flood protection, you likely think of dams and levees. But there’s another element of flood protection that provides many additional benefits – floodplains. Floodplains are a bit like the utility player in baseball – called on to play a number of positions and always getting the job done. Here are sever ...

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 wastewater treatment plants that could lead ...

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 is highly toxic to the livers of humans and animals. When ...

The City of Hamilton has created the best tasting water in the world using groundwater from the Great Miami River Buried Valley Aquifer. The city received the gold medal for Best Municipal Water at the 25th anniversary Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting in West Virginia held in February. What is this "aquifer" anyway? Think of ...

Road Salts Contribute Chloride To Our Rivers The last couple of winters have had a strong grip on the region, making driving a challenge. Communities across the region use road salt to melt snow and ice and keep drivers safer, but at what cost? Use of road salt in the northern U.S. has doubled the amount of chloride in rivers and streams ...

Water Levels In The Great Miami River Watershed Stories about droughts, water shortages, and aquifers drying up are in the news with regularity these days, especially in places throughout the western United States. What are the chances that our aquifer could run dry? Are the water levels in the Great Miami River Watershed and its buried v ...

By Mike Ekberg, MCD Water Resources Manager Sampling conducted by the Miami Conservancy District is consistent with a recently-released report by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS Circular 1352, 2014). The study assessed groundwater quality in more than 1,000 wells in aquifers in the northern United States. The study examined ...