The Ohio: Place for a plunge?

River's water, though far from perfect, is enough improved that
swimmers return

Jonathan Grinder got some strange looks a few years back when he
started pitching the idea of a race for swimmers across the Ohio
River.

He was relatively new in town and figured people here would jump at
the chance to dive into the region’s greatest natural resource. Anyone
can swim in a pool, he told friends. This would be something special.

The response he heard most often: “You’re nuts.�

“People kept saying, ‘No, no, no, you can’t do this,’ � Grinder
recalled. “There’s this perception that the river is dangerous and
unhealthy to swim in.�

Grinder was undaunted. He and other river advocates kept pushing and
created the Great Ohio River Swim, which will celebrate its fifth
anniversary Saturday when 140 people are expected to swim from the
Serpentine Wall to Newport and back.

Hundreds more have signed up to swim in the river Sunday for a leg of
the Cincinnati Triathlon.

The events are a testament to the dramatic change in the river’s water
quality over the past four decades, but also to lingering concerns.

As Grinder learned while promoting the swim and triathlon, many still
see the Ohio River’s water as something to be feared. Boating in the
Ohio or driving over it is fine, the skeptics say, but anyone who eats
fish from it or voluntarily jumps in must have a screw loose.

Decades ago, it would have been hard to argue. The water was dirty,
the fish were nasty and swimming in the Ohio never was a good idea.

Today, the river’s condition is imperfect, but much better. The
quality of drinking water from the river meets or exceeds standards.
Fish species are bouncing back. Bacteria levels from sewage are
considerably lower. Industries can no longer legally dump unlimited
amounts of untreated toxic waste.

And, yes, on most days, a swim in the river is just fine.

All that adds up to a vast improvement over the mid-20th Century, when
bacterial counts were dangerously high every day and a few hardy
catfish were the only signs of life most people ever saw in the water.

“Back in the 1930s and 1940s, the downtown area was almost
uninhabitable in the summer because of the stench,� said Peter
Tennant, executive director of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation
Commission (ORSANCO). “Obviously, we’ve made tremendous progress.�

But the Ohio still has a long way to go, environmental activists say.

Untreated sewage still pours into the river after heavy rains because
Cincinnati and other cities rely on 100-year-old sewer systems that
combine sanitary and storm sewers.

Water from those combined sewers causes spikes in bacteria, making the
water a potential health hazard.

The Great Ohio River Swim and the Triathlon will be at the mercy of
those overflows this weekend.

Water tests early Saturday will determine if bacteria counts are too
high because of recent rain, forcing a postponement of the events.

Industries, meanwhile, still legally release about 30 million pounds
of toxic chemicals into the Ohio every year, almost three times more
than goes into any other river in the country.

Environmentalists also worry that the Clean Water Act, which gets much
of the credit for improved water quality, is eroding under pressure
from industry groups and some recent Supreme Court decisions.

“We’re dealing with a whole new set of challenges,� said Julian Boggs,
a policy advocate for Environment Ohio, an environmental advocacy
group in Columbus.

“These chemicals are incredibly toxic and we’re putting them into the
same water we’re drinking and recreating in.�

A great resource shows great improvement
Forty years ago, bacteria levels in the water were so high the river
almost never was considered safe for swimming. Today, the water is
safe 90 percent of the time during dry conditions and is safe for
recreation more than 70 percent of the time overall.

Nikki Galea Franz, who lives Downtown, was one of the doubters until a
friend started taking her out on his boat this summer. Now she swims
and goes water tubing all the time.

“It’s fun,� she said. “Just wash your hair and take a good shower when
you’re done.�

Fish are coming back to the river, too, with about 130 species now
confirmed in the water. Those include dozens of “pollution intolerant�
game fish, such as bass and walleye, which were rarely seen in the
1960s and 1970s.

Although fish advisories remain in place, primarily because traces of
mercury still can be found, most species are considered safe to eat
once a month or once a week.

“I’ve eaten the fish and I’m still alive,� said James Niesen, a St.
Bernard fisherman who routinely catches bass and walleye in the river.
“I’m OK with it as long as you moderate.�

ORSANCO biologist Jeff Thomas, who also eats the fish, has become
something of a crusader on the river’s behalf. He’s determined to
dispel what he considers misperceptions about the quality of the water
and fish.

He and others with ORSANCO travel the length of the river with a
2,200-gallon fish tank, showing off the river’s bounty at festivals
and other events.

They fill the tank with fish caught locally and try to convince
skeptics that all those fish really are living in the Ohio River.
Sometimes, it’s a tough sell.

“You can’t blame folks for the attitude. They don’t see what we see,�
Thomas said. “This is a great resource flowing through people’s back
yards.�

Some problems persist despite changes
Stacey Cochran’s job is to find out what kind of shape that resource
is in.

She and other environmental specialists with ORSANCO sample the water
here every week to determine whether bacteria levels are safe. They
test for E. coli and fecal coliform at three locations: Coney Island,
the Serpentine Wall and Anderson Ferry.

“Everybody has this idea that the river is dirty,� Cochran said in
early July as she scooped water into a plastic container. “But it’s
getting better.�

The results of her work often back up that statement. The samples in
June all were within safe limits and some were among the lowest
bacteria counts on record.

But the testing also illustrates a persistent problem. After heavy
rains, the combined sewer overflows cause dramatic increases in
bacteria that can last for a few days or longer.

During the dry month of June, for example, the E. coli count per 100
milliliters of water fell as low as four – well below the 240 that is
deemed acceptable. During a rainy May, however, the E. coli count
soared to 2,600 on some days.

The Metropolitan Sewer District is under court orders to clean up the
overflows. Rate payers have shelled out about $300 million in recent
years for projects in a planned $3 billion upgrade of the system.

The improvements have eased the problem, but have not solved it.

Some environmentalists say the sewage overflows tended to mask the
river’s other big problem: Chemicals in the water from industry and
farms.

Industries legally released about 32 million pounds of toxic chemicals
into the river in 2010, compared to 31 million pounds in 2007. The
data, the most recent available, is from the federal Toxic Release
Inventory, which monitors and limits chemical discharges.

The inventory tracks only permitted releases of chemicals, so illegal
dumping and fertilizer run-off from farms isn’t reflected in the
total.

Rich Cogen, executive director of the Ohio River Foundation, a
nonprofit conservation group, said the combination of heavy industry
and farming in the Ohio River Valley means the river takes on more
pollutants than any other in the country.

While that doesn’t make the river the most polluted waterway – it’s
big enough to handle more waste than smaller rivers – “the water is
still not in the best condition for direct contact,� Cogen said.

Of course, defining “best condition� may be in the eye of the
beholder. The Ohio River is in the nation’s industrial heartland and
will never be pristine.

Bill Keating Jr., a Cincinnati lawyer, is confident enough in the
river’s condition to take the plunge this weekend. He hails from a
family of swimmers and, a few years ago, did the Great River Swim with
one of his daughters, his son and his father, then 82. He plans to be
back in the water Saturday.

“I think people believe everything that goes into the drains goes into
the river, and that’s just not true,� Keating said.


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DOWNTOWN
Bacteria levels elevated by rain Thursday afternoon forced the Great Ohio River Swim to be rescheduled for Sunday morning.

About 150 swimmers are expected to begin the swim at 7:30 a.m. Sunday across the Ohio from Cincinnati’s Serpentine Wall to Newport and back. The distance is just less than 900 meters.

“Unless it rains – and the chance of rain is zero (Saturday) – we are 100 percent go,” said Jonathan Grinder, race coordinator with Tuscon Racing. “The levels were barely too high.”

The river’s water quality is monitored at three locations in Cincinnati and tested for a bacteria called fecal coliform. Samples were drawn Saturday morning.

The main reason those levels rise is excessive rainfall, which causes overflow from the Metropolitan Sewer District’s combined sewer overflow sewers; they carry both sewage and storm water from the same pipe.

During the dry month of June, the E. coli count per 100 milliliters of water fell as low as four, well below the 240 count that is considered safe. During the rainy early weeks of May the E. coli count exceeded 2,600 on some days.

“We make sure the water levels are safe for the athletes,” Grinder said Saturday.

The first Greater Ohio River Swim, in 2008, had to be postponed because of bacteria levels.

Sunday’s race will be the fifth annual. In 2011, 131 swimmers completed the swim. The winning time was 10:22.

Hundreds more have signed up to swim the river Sunday as part of the Cincinnati Triathlon.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120721/NEWS/307210072/Ohio-River-Swim-postponed-Sunday?odyssey=nav|head