COLUMBUS – Water quality experts are cringing at a provision in the state budget that allows owners of property along reservoirs and public waterways to pull plants, mow paths and chop trees next to their lawns.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
The oak behind Brent Hartzell’s Genoa Township home keeps growing.
So do the smaller trees, scrub foliage and weeds. They block about a third of his backyard view of Hoover Reservoir. And until Monday, the 65-year-old retiree wondered what might be left of the vista that drew him to the property 17 years ago.
When he heard that a provision in the state budget will allow him and others along reservoirs and public waterways to pull plants, mow paths and chop trees next to their lawns he began thinking of the possibilities.
“Well, I’ve got a chainsaw, and I’d like to clean a lot of it out of there,” he said.
Experts in water quality cringe when they hear such talk.
Vegetated buffer strips are commonly used by water agencies as a best management practice to not only filter pollutants and excess nutrients carried in overland stormwater, but to also prevent land erosion through deep rooted trees and plants.
If residents around reservoirs remove trees or grasses, pollutants could end up in the city’s water supply.
The strip of land encircling the edge of Hoover and other reservoirs acts as a natural filter to prevent pesticides and other contaminants from entering the public drinking-water supply. The size of that strip historically has varied by property, from a few feet to a couple of hundred feet, depending on when the city bought the property and what deal city officials worked out with landowners at the time.
Columbus water officials worry that the law, which takes effect this fall, could lead to more runoff of the kind that causes toxic algae blooms, dead zones in reservoirs and high levels of nitrates, all of which can make the water unsafe for people, pets and fish.
The Department of Public Utilities has asked the City Attorney’s Office to review legal options against the amendment, which does not take effect for 90 days, said Rick Westerfield, administrator of the Columbus Division of Water.
“We are obviously disappointed, and view this amendment as trespassing. The city purchased property around the reservoirs many years ago as buffers to filter pollutants to protect the water quality for our 1.1 million drinking water customers,” he said. “Our concern is that there is nothing in this amendment to prohibit those who do not own these important riparian corridors from removing trees – purchased with public money – and otherwise clearing city-owned land for their own personal benefit.”
A similar amendment appeared in the budget two years ago and was vetoed by Governor John Kasich.
Since then, Columbus has issued a two-week nitrate advisory that told parents not to give small infants tap water. Westerfield’s agency wrestled with a taste and odor issue caused by an algal bloom in late 2013 and Toledo had to issue a “do not consume” advisory last summer due to toxic algae in Lake Erie which contaminated the water supply for hundreds of thousands of people.
Other organizations that expressed concern about the amendment included the Ohio Sierra Club, Ohio Environmental Council, Friends of the Scioto River, and Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed, Westerfield said.