Health department website posts beach advisories
The Ohio Department of Health has announced a new comprehensive beach safety website www.odh.ohio.gov/healthybeaches, giving the public a chance to see if a bacteria advisory or harmful algal bloom advisory has been posted at the 62 monitored Lake Erie beaches or at an inland lake state park beach.

Each year between Memorial Day and Labor Day, selected public beaches are sampled for E. coli bacteria.  The presence of the bacteria in beach water is a good indicator of pollution that could be potentially harmful to swimmers. If the sample results are greater than the U.S. EPA recreational standard, an advisory is posted to warn swimmers of the risk of illness associated with water contact.  The advisory remains posted until the sample result is below the recreational standard.

The State of Ohio also does monitoring for harmful algal blooms, which are cyanobacteria (also known as blue green algae).  Once a harmful algal bloom advisory is posted, the state will periodically sample until the toxins produced by the bloom are below acceptable thresholds or the end of the beach season in Ohio.

Fees fair for rate payers?
An impact fee enacted last year by the Northwestern Water and Sewer District for buildings using lines for fire suppression/sprinkler systems is intended to shift the cost burden from rate payers to the larger users, says Jerry Greiner, the district’s executive director.

“These types of demands on a water distribution system put a burden on that system to provide ready access to large amounts of water in emergency situations,” he said. “The regular rate payers pay most of the cost to provide this capability to these (usually) commercial/industrial users but get nothing for this service. Thus, the rates would need to be higher in commercial/industrial/warehouse situations to make this type of water demand available if there wasn’t some type of charge to help offset that used to build these mains bigger than otherwise necessary for most everyday residential use.”

The fee was cited as a hindrance to economic development during a meeting last month of the Lake Township Board of Trustees, which has formed a Joint Economic Development District with the City of Toledo at Toledo Executive Airport, formerly Metcalf Field.

Robert Mack, of Signature Associates, told the trustees his firm is completing a marketing study and pricing analysis of the parcels in the JEDD, which will have a starting price of about $25,000 an acre.

Richard Welling, a trustee, mentioned the fee, noting the trustees and water district have been negotiating on the cost of a water line for the new township administration building that opened last month.

He called the fee a “real jobs killer.”

Greiner said the charge varies based on the line size.

“Lake Township paid for the increased size of fire line they had in the old building which increased in size for the new building,” he said. “They were charged the difference, about $24,000.”

Boaters cited
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), Division of Watercraft was among the agencies participating June 24-26 in a nationwide crackdown on impaired boating known as Operation Dry Water.

Ohio officers contacted 1,907 boaters and made eight arrests for boating while intoxicated. A total of 112 other alcohol and boating-related violations were issued in addition to 503 boating safety warnings.

No related fatalities were recorded.

In 2010, state watercraft officers contacted 3,810 boaters and made 11 arrests for boating while intoxicated during the enforcement weekend. A total of 198 other alcohol and boating-related violations were issued in addition to 754 warnings.

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