Powell Creek Cleanup Targeted

A project aimed at the clean up of the Pow­ell Creek water­shed in Defi­ance and Put­nam coun­ties has been extended until June.

The Cres­cent News reports today that the Pow­ell Creek nutri­ent reduc­tion project was sched­uled to last two years, but now has been extended to June 30. The pro­gram began in 2013 and is funded by a $313,000 grant through the Ohio Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency, with the aim of reduc­ing nutri­ents going into the water­shed by using agri­cul­tural best man­age­ment prac­tices. So far, the installed Pow­ell (Creek water­shed) prac­tices have reduced nitro­gen load­ings by approx­i­mately 6,539 pounds, phos­pho­rus load­ings by 2,795 pounds, and sed­i­ment by 285 tons per year.

The Pow­ell Creek nutri­ent reduc­tion project came about after the OEPA eval­u­ated the bio­log­i­cal health and water qual­ity of the water­shed, which is clas­si­fied as a warm water habi­tat used for pri­mary con­tact recre­ation. In 2000, the creek was iden­ti­fied in a total max­i­mum daily load study by the OEPA as an “impaired stream.”