COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nitrates that contaminated Columbus’ drinking water this week likely washed into the Scioto River from farms more than 60 miles away during severe rainstorms more than a week ago, city officials said Tuesday.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
Water officials generally test for nitrates once a month, as required by law. But at the Dublin Road facility, they saw the problem coming.
The city issued a do-not-drink warning on Monday for pregnant women and infants younger than 6 months old who live in areas served by the Dublin Road water plant. Rick Westerfield, administrator of the city’s water division, said the advisory could last as long as two weeks.
On Tuesday, nitrate levels rose even higher.
City water officials kept an eye on the Scioto River after heavy rains fell on June 1 in counties including Wyandot, Hardin and Auglaize, Westerfield said.
About 80 percent of the 1,000-square-mile Scioto River watershed is farmland, he said. “We knew fertilizers had been applied right before this rain event.”
Nitrates are in those fertilizers, and ended up in the streams that feed into the Scioto River, which supplies drinking water to much of central Ohio.