Wooster water plan focuses on quality
The City of Wooster distributes an average of 2.98 million gallons of water daily, down from the 3.5-4 million per day of 20 years ago.
The City of Wooster has successfully completed the update to its Source Water Protection Plan, which will help ensure Wooster residents have a clean, abundant drinking water supply for the upcoming decades. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued an endorsement for the plan in March 2021.
Unfortunately, contaminated drinking water supplies for communities are something that frequently make it into the news. In 2014 the Toledo drinking water crisis left residents temporarily unable to drink the water from their tap while Lake Erie experienced harmful algal blooms. Incidences like the Toledo example impact quality of life and the health of communities, as well as tourism, recreation and businesses.
The City of Wooster has long valued the importance of being proactive about its water supply.
“I have worked for the City of Wooster for 21 years, starting out in the engineering division. In that capacity, I was involved in our source water protection planning and projects," said Joel Montgomery, city manager for Wooster. "I can say from experience that protecting Wooster's drinking water supply has always been a priority, and we have invested millions of dollars to ensure safe drinking water in perpetuity.”
There are two sources of drinking water for any city: groundwater and surface water. Wooster’s drinking water supply comes entirely from groundwater. One may think groundwater is cleaner than surface water that comes from streams, rivers or lakes, but there are many ways groundwater supplies can become contaminated and put residents at risk.
“The City of Wooster’s water comes from the buried Killbuck aquifer," Wooster utilities manager Nate Coey said. "In early 2019 I went to a workshop and part of me thought, 'How do we ensure we don't have big challenges in the future? How do we minimize surprises that pop up?'”
Coey said the last source water protection plan was 20 years old and a lot has changed since then. First, technology has changed, making contaminants easier to detect. Second, there is a time lag because water flows very slowly underground, so there could be a spill or contaminant that takes years to detect, meaning proactive testing and planning is critical. Third, Coey stressed a desire to continue to show transparency to the community and share additional information on the quality of the drinking water. For these three reasons, it was important to update the plan.
The analysis that went into the plan update had two major components. First, the analysis looked at demand for water by residents.
Interestingly, water consumption has decreased.
“We are selling and distributing less water than we ever have — 3.5-4 million gallons per day 20 years ago was the average flow. We’re averaging 2.98 million gallons per day now, but we still have to plan for growth and changes in the future," Coey said. "(Part of the decrease) was water-conserving devices in homes, and part was us being more proactive with leaks on the main line.”
Thus, the quantity of water for the future is less of a concern. The quality of water is where most planning is focused.
Because of the way water flows, there are certain areas of land across Wooster where chemical spills and pollution are more likely to get into the drinking water supply, so the second component of the analysis looked at where risk of contamination is highest. A consulting firm worked with the City of Wooster to conduct what is referred to as “hydraulic modeling” to better understand where those areas exist.
“We calculate how long it would take a spill to migrate to the well. It only takes a small amount of diesel to mess up a well. Dumping fuel on the ground can impact your groundwater well, in smaller quantities than we realize,” Coey said.
Part of what makes a good source water protection plan is, in addition to the analysis, tangible recommendations to help communicate with the public.
“Source water protection plans are important to help ensure drinking water remains safe. Wooster has a protection program which includes monitoring, education and outreach," said Anthony Chenault, media coordinator for the Northeast, Central and Southeast Districts, Ohio EPA. "The program also allows the city to communicate with local industry and other facilities before potential contaminant sources can create problems.”
“Safe drinking water is not an accident; it is intentional with a focus on community health and reliability,” Montgomery said.
For more details on the City of Wooster’s plan, refer to www.woosteroh.com/water/source-water-protection-program. For more information from the EPA, check out Ohio EPA’s website at www.epa.ohio.gov/ddagw/swap.