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Safe drinking water that is there when it's needed is a major quality of life issue for residents in most of Washington County.
With that goal in mind, Washington County Commissioners will be hosting representatives of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on April 13 and giving them a tour of Lowell, Little Hocking, and New Matamoras, along with a progress update visit to the Devola Sewer Project area.
Marietta's new reverse osmosis water treatment plant replacement is in the works and has gotten a huge boost from the OEPA with the principal forgiveness of $10 million on its construction loan through Emerging Contaminants grants.
However, other places in the county need a staggering amount of money invested, as well. They need major infrastructure upgrades for lines, water mains, holding tanks, wells, water plants and booster stations. For example, about 90% of Lowell's current water system was installed in 1938. Their brown tap water, caused by iron and manganese interacting with chlorine disinfectant, has been tamed with $200,000 of water filters. But that is only a temporary fix for their problems. New Matamoras has some cast iron water mains that date back to 1901. Little Hocking has tap moratoriums for 18 separate neighborhoods and roads because of poor water pressure.
Those are a few of the facts from the "Washington County Safe Water Project," a document of more than 60 pages assembled by the county commissioners. They asked representatives from 13 water systems, districts and associations, villages and municipalities, to document their drinking water difficulties. The commission is using that assembled knowledge to do whatever it can to act as an advocate and catalyst for state funding, to provide pertinent facts when somebody useful is listening.
There is money available from the state, mainly the OEPA. But all the projects need to be shepherded by professionals such as planners, grant writers and engineers who can give them a chance at success with the Ohio Builds Water Infrastructure Program, the H2Ohio Project, the Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance, the OEPA Emerging Contaminants project, the Water Supply Revolving Loan Account, and others.
There are designs and specifications, applications, nominations and funding project "points" awarded before there's any talk of actual money amounts. The process takes months. If a funding request is turned down and has to be reinvented and resubmitted in another funding cycle, the wait can be even longer.
The Marietta Times will examine some of the area's water infrastructure struggles -- and wins -- in articles this week and next. Tomorrow: Lowell