BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
NORTH BEND -- Residents of this river town are upset over a Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) request for looser limits on what it can dump into the Ohio River.
They worry that slightly contaminated water flowing from the Indian Creek Water Reclamation Facility would pollute the bend in the waterway that gives their community its identity.
But MSD and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials say that the 500,000 gallons of water processed daily at the plant is just a drop in the bucket. Even if the recently expanded facility were operating at its 1.5 million-gallon-per-day capacity, that would amount to only 0.02 percent of the flow of the Ohio River, according to Joshua Jackson, an environmental specialist with the OEPA.
The big picture
The real problem, Mr. Jackson said, is that allowing less stringent dumping regulations at Indian Creek could set a dangerous precedent for his agency statewide.
"Certainly a very fundamental concern is that we're not going to be able to approach the situation at Indian Creek in isolation. We have to figure the effect that will have on other, much larger facilities," he said.
So it appears likely that North Bend will have its way.
Even Michael Heitz, assistant superintendent of wastewater treatment at MSD, said he has a "gut instinct" that the OEPA will set the most stringent standards for Indian Creek.
Then MSD officials can decide whether to appeal the decision.
The MSD does not want to pollute the Ohio River, Mr. Heitz said. But the looser standards his agency seeks would allow such a small amount of additional pollutants in the river that it could not possibly have a negative effect.
"There's really nothing to be gained in the river from this very small difference," he said, pointing out that the OEPA is likely to maintain a stringent oversight in compliance with bureaucratic regulations rather than any need to protect the waterway.
"Ours is one very small appeal to common sense," he said.
That argument did little to persuade the village council, which unanimously opposed the MSD request at a Tuesdaynight public hearing. "We don't want any more pollutants in the river anywhere, no matter how much," Vice Mayor Bill Kane said. "The technology is there to bring an end to it. . . . And if we have to be the first community to get the ball rolling, then more power to us."
Ironically, the OEPA permit drafted for the expanded Indian Creek plant was specifically designed to meet its technological capability.
But MSD wants slightly higher limits, to allow for problems the plant might encounter as the population grows in Cleves, North Bend and Addyston.
"As the plant approaches capacity at some point in the future, it's going to take greater and greater effort to keep within standards," said Jim Simpson, OEPA southwest district division manager. "Less stringent limits puts them at reduced risk for having a violation. . . . It gives them more breathing space."
Room to grow
Vice Mayor Kane pointed out that MSD designed its plant to handle the next 20 years -- and the development expected to hit Miami Township has been no secret.
"MSD should do what's necessary to cause the treatment plant to work the way it should -- design it properly and manage it properly," he said. "They had a grand opening and a great showing of how wondrous it was and how it was going to meet all the modern standards. Now it appears they want to return to their old standards."
