Doughty Creek water quality efforts continue
- col-karen-gotter
- August 14, 2024
- 812
Holmes County streams face similar issues as many small watersheds throughout Ohio: Rising temperatures, excess sediments and nutrient levels are noticeable in most of our streams, and unfortunately, bacteria levels don’t meet safe levels for contact in many streams across the state, due to human activity.
There is a lot of interest from our state leadership in addressing these water-quality issues, so it is the perfect time to launch a few different initiatives that will enable Holmes County agencies to work on water-quality improvements from different angles.
A partnership between Holmes SWCD and the Holmes County engineer to reduce negative impacts to the Doughty was the beginning of the Doughty Creek Water Quality Initiative and has brought in other partners, like the Holmes Health District and the county GIS department. Once the foundations to the project are built, similar efforts will be rolled out for the rest of the county.
The Doughty Creek is a major tributary to the Killbuck Creek. The natural features were a major reason why early settlers in Holmes County chose to farm, build homesteads and set up shop in the Doughty Valley. To this day, it has a reputation for some of the best farm fields in the county, along with scenic views and great fish populations too.
However, as we see Holmes County changing, we see the pressure put on these waterways, and unfortunately, the Doughty has higher levels of the major issues than most areas throughout Holmes County. Our water-quality initiative will help identify problem spots and areas of opportunity to protect water quality as we continue to add houses and businesses.
Holmes SWCD is working on the development of watershed plans called Non-Point Source Implementation Strategies, which focus on identifying water-quality problems that come from diffuse sources (as opposed to point sources) and crafting solutions to help meet water-quality goals.
With these plans in place, it unlocks funding from various state and federal sources, but it also helps direct our activities so we home in on the projects that will positively impact the community the most.
This is not just for the sake of wildlife or the stream itself, but also to protect people and animals that are in and around the water and to protect the community infrastructure from flooding and erosion.
For example, to reduce in-stream sediment pollution by a certain percentage, we will set a goal for stabilizing a certain number of feet of eroding stream banks. Coupling bank stabilization with other practices — for example, planting trees — can help improve other indicators you can measure, like reducing nutrients in the stream and cooling the water temperature to help aquatic species. It also can provide benefits that are harder to put a number on, such as providing forested riparian areas to act as wildlife corridors.
Our responsibility will then be working with landowners and our fellow agencies on how to implement these goals. In these plans, where we have identified our problem areas, we can home in on projects that might be infrastructure related, so we can find grants that will not only lead to erosion prevention, helping us meet our pollution reduction targets, but also help protect roads and bridges. We also will work to find landowners who are willing to have conservation practices on their property, to reduce their loss of land due to erosion or to improve it for wildlife or other goals.
Right now we are still in the process of collecting feedback to help inform the first draft of these watershed plans. Over time they can be updated as projects are put in place, new issues arise and as information is collected to see whether the efforts have yielded improvements.
It’s exciting that our county partners see the overlap between our missions and that we have been able to develop this pilot project together to see how we can improve water quality for the residents and visitors to Holmes County.
Give us your feedback
Input from landowners and people who regularly travel around the area is the best way to get a full picture of the good and the bad in the watershed. When we know what these priority projects are, we can better target our efforts to protect or improve the issues the community cares about most.
An online survey form is now available that allows residents to identify the type of problem and pin its location with coordinates.
“By filling out the survey, residents can let county officials know where erosion, stream-bank undercutting, flooding, log jams, lack of stream vegetation and any other issues within the watershed may exist,” county engineer Chris Young said. “We know where many of the issues are located near the roadways and bridges, but folks living near the streams are often in a better position to tell us about problems further back on their own private property.”
To fill out the survey, visit the Holmes County Engineer’s website at https:/holmesengineer.org or follow the link at the QR code on this page before Aug. 31. The survey can be filled out using any computer device, but perhaps the best way to submit information is through a mobile device onsite where the problem area is located. This allows the user to not only use the GPS position to mark the problem location, but also to take pictures of the problem that can be submitted along with the survey.
If you do not have access to the internet, calling the Holmes SWCD office or the Holmes County engineer with your feedback for this project is welcome.