winter 2006 voice of the mill creek newsletter, mill creek watershed council

8/9/2019 Winter 2006 Voice of the Mill Creek Newsletter, Mill Creek Watershed Council

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Voice of the Mill Creek

Serving:

Amberley Village

Arlington Heights

Blue Ash

Butler County

Cincinnati

Elmwood Place

Evendale

FaireldForest Park

Glendale

Greenhills

Hamilton County

Liberty Township

Lincoln Heights

Lockland

Montgomery

Mounty Healthy

Millcreek Valley

Conservancy District

North College Hill

Norwood

Reading

St. BernardSharonville

Springdale

Springeld Township

Sycamore Township

West Chester Township

Woodlawn

Wyoming

First Quarter

MillCreekWatershed

CouncilofCommunities

Eleventh Year

Inside this issue:

A unanimous vote of the

Millcreek Valley Conser-vancy District (MVCD)Board of Directors onFebruary 10th moved theDistrict one step closertowards a new format -a continuation plan thatproposes a streamlineddistrict with new direc-tors; an advisory commit-tee comprised of repre-sentatives from Districtcommunities and former

District Board members;and no staff.

The plan, developed byDistrict stakeholders andspearheaded by Sharon-ville Mayor Virgil Lovitt,was rst presented at

the December 2005 MVCDBoard meeting as an al-ternative to the Districtsproposed dissolution. Thenew directors will repre-sent the City of Cincin-

garnering public support

for ood damage reduc-tion in the Mill Creek val-ley and performance ofon-going maintenance ac-tivities.

The nal hurdles to Dis-trict restructuring includeconditions attached to theFebruary 10th MVCD reso-lution. These relate tonew Board member eligi-bility, liability insurance,

funding sources for Districtexpenses, and a nal audit

of District nances. Since

February 10th, the MCW-CC Executive Director hasbeen working with the Dis-trict Board, staff and legalcounsel; the proposednew Board members; andthe listed municipalitiesto ensure these conditionsare met.

nati Stormwater Manage-

ment Utility of HamiltonCounty (CSMU), the Ham-ilton County Engineers Of-ce (HCEO) and the Mill

Creek Watershed Councilof Communities (MCWCC).Administrative and tech-nical activities will be per-formed by these entities.

The new MVCD leadershipwill focus their efforts on

On February 14th, ofcials

with the Ohio Environ-mental Protection Agency(OEPA) Division of SurfaceWater and the Ohio Depart-ment of Natural Resources(ODNR) Division of Soiland Water Conservationsigned a letter ofcially

endorsing the Upper MillCreek Watershed Manage-ment Plan. A formal kick-off ceremony for UpperMill Creek communities isplanned for this spring.

Endorsement increasesthe likelihood that stategrants will be awardedfor projects that addressplan-identied watershed

impairments.

The Upper Mill Creek sub-watershed covers roughly40 square miles and en-compasses portions of 11local municipalities andtownships in southeasternButler County and north-ern Hamilton County. Thewatershed plan addresseswater quality and habitatimpairments identied

along the main stem ofthe Mill Creek, the EastFork Mill Creek and theirtributaries.

Plan implementation hasalready begun on sev-eral fronts. Work startedin late 2005 on the MillCreek Headwaters TMDLImplementation Project

funded through a stategrant under Section 319 ofthe Clean Water Act. Thisproject will address waterquality and habitat impair-ments on the main stemand East Fork Mill Creek inWest Chester Township.

Nonpoint source pollutionrelated to illicit dischargesand construction activitieswhich affect water qual-ity are being addressedby the Hamilton and But-ler County Storm WaterDistricts, Faireld, Forest

Park, Hamilton, Springda-le and West Chester Town-ship through implementa-tion of their Phase II StormWater Permits.

New direction for Conservancy District

Watershed plan endorsed by state agencies

The MVCD resolutionstates: the Board ofDirectors ... recognizesthe Continuation Planas a fourth option thatwould, if conditions ...are met, be in the bestinterests of the Dis-tricts constituents andthe public at large andtherefore preferable tothe Staff Report recom-mendation of dissolu-

tion of the District... Continued on page

CANOE TOUR OF

UPPER MILL CREEK

NEW COUNCILCOMMITTEES

FISH & HABITATSTUDY

NOTES FROM THEDIRECTOR

COUNCIL MEETINGANNOUNCMENT

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Voice of the Mill Creek

On a snowy day in the deadof winter, the Mill CreekYacht Club explored projectsites for a federal grant.

Six guys with moreenthusiasm than commonsense got their hands coldand feet wet in the upper MillCreek on Saturday, February5th. With University ofCincinnati Professor MichaelC. Miller leading the way,they paddled past placeswhere streambanks needstabilization, the ripariancorridor could use morevegetation, or low-lying

properties can be convertedinto oodplain wetlands.

The canoe trip tookplace in Butler Countysrapidly developing WestChester Township. Along adeeply channelized, two-mile stretch of streambetween State Road 747and Windisch Road, thecanoeists identied a

variety of opportunitiesfor the $970,000 Mill CreekHeadwaters Project. Asproject sponsor, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional

Council of Governments(OKI), is collaborating withthe Mill Creek WatershedCouncil of Communities andeight other project partnersto reduce sediment andnutrient pollution to theupper Mill Creek. Floodmitigation and ecologicalrestoration can also beachieved.

Dr. Miller and his companions

also spotted wildlife or signsof it. They encounteredan owl, great blue heron,white-shouldered hawk,red-tailed hawk, mallardducks and several other birdspecies. They saw a beaverlodge and trees felledby beavers, a streamsidetrail made by mink, andseveral muskrat slides. Alate-morning snowfall sent

down akes that sometimes

looked like cotton balls.

The Mill Creek Yacht Clubconsists of anyone who

paddles on the long-abusedbut resurgent urban streamThe loose-knit groupsmaiden voyage was in Apri1994 as an antidote to althe board room meetingsthat devote hours to MilCreek discussion but narya minute to Mill Creekexperience. To date, theYacht Club has taken 55trips and has paddled 26 ofthe Mill Creeks 28 miles

Twelve trips have beencleanups and another one isplanned on April 22nd.

Mark Dicken, a water qualityintern at OKI, became theYacht Clubs 300th membeon February 5th. For moreinformation about the YachtClub or Headwaters Projectcontact Bruce Koehler of OK

at 513.621.6300, ext.112.

Mill Creek yacht club rides again

OKI intern Mark Dicken atthe bow and Commodore

Koehler at the sternon a winter canoe tripon Upper Mill Creek.

Mike Miller photo

An ambitious work planadopted at the Mill CreekWatershed Council of Com-munities annual meetingin January contains severalnew projects for 2006. Eachproject will be completedby years end.

Site Mitigation Database

In anticipation of theupcoming I-75 expansion

projects and the expectedwetland and stream impacts,the Council will develop amitigation site database.

Website UpdateThe Councils website,created in 1999, is in needof an overhaul. Among theproposed changes are a new

format, updated content,and interactive features.

Carp Run FundraiserThe 2nd Annual5K run andwalk event will be this yearsonly Council fundraiser. Theevent will take place thisfall - the date has yet to bedetermined.

Ad hoc committees will beformed for each project

Volunteers should call ouofce at 513.563.8800.

New Watershed Council committees being formed

will permit me to becomemore involved in meetingthe needs of our 36 water-shed jurisdictions.

Now all we have to do is nd

the perfect candidate.

grams and projects - par-ticularly those dealing withooding, stormwater man-agement and water quality.He or she will also work onexpanding our communica-tions network. This move

In our eleventh year of exis-tence, the Council is takinga big step. With the Boardsblessing, we are adding aprofessional Program Direc-tor who will be responsiblefor a number of our pro-

Notes from the Director

Download the Mill CreekWatershed Council ofCommunities 2005 Summaryat our website:www.millcreekwatershed.org

Workingtogetherfora betterMill C reek

2005

MillCreek Watershed Council of

Communiti es


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Eleventh Year

On May 27, 2005, a consor-tium of Mill Creek waterquality stakeholders gath-ered to monitor the com-position of sh in the Army

Corps of Engineers restora-tion of a portion of the MillCreek channel. The softchannel biorestoration in-cluded placement of threesets of V-weirs (cross vanes)in the mainstem channel inthe upper half of the sec-tion between Clifton Aveand Ludlow Ave along Sal-way Park.

The plunge pools and habi-

tat, completed in 2004, weresampled using boat electro-shing by representatives

from the University of Cin-cinnati (Michael C. Miller,Richard Fuller, Melissa Mey-ers and Bernard Moller), Mill

below the Butler CountyRegional WWTP was morediverse (10-14 species) in amuch smaller reach domi-nated by efuent.) The wa-

ter quality, likely compro-mised by combined seweroverows (CSOs) and NP-DES permitted discharges,still limits sh biodiversity

in this reach.

As MSD works towards an 85%reduction of sanitary seweroverow (SSO) and CSO dis-charges into area waters incompliance with the US De-partment of Justice consent

decree, we might expectimprovements in sh com-munity commensurate withthe habitat quality.

Article submitted by Dr. MichaelMiller, Biology Dept., Universityof Cincinnati

Creek Watershed Council ofCommunities (Bruce Koehlerand Michael Miller, GeraldRobertson), Cincinnati Na-ture Center (Michael Mill-

cox) and Mill Creek Restora-tion Project (Dave Gosse).

The sh community was nei-ther diverse (eight species)nor abundant (catch per uniteffort of 2.5 sh per minute

or 148 sh per hour). The

vegetation was not largeenough to shade the re-stored reach; but the habi-tat was deeper with plungepools and attracted much

larger sh than would havebeen found there previous-ly. However, those large sh

were all carp moving upriverto spawn. (By comparison,habitat enhancement in theEast Fork of the Mill Creek

Does habitat improvement enhance fsh biodiversity?

will be made by the Conser-vancy Court after the cur-rent Board members stepdown. The deadline forthe remaining conditions isMarch 31st.

If everything goes as expect-ed, the newly restructured

District would begin opera-tion on April 1st. Shortlythereafter the new Boardwill meet to discuss MVCDoperational details.

For additional informationcall Ms. Nancy Ellwood at513.563.8800.

On March 1st, the namesof Mr. Robert Campbell(CSMU), Mr. Theodore Hub-bard (HCEO) and Ms. NancyEllwood (MCWCC) were pre-sented to the District as thecandidates for Board posi-

tions. Final appointment

MVCD, continued from page

Green Sunfish (22.90%)

Pumpkinseed (1.53%)

Steel Color Shiner (7.63%)

Stoneroller (1.53%)Yellow Bullhead (1.53%)

Bluegill Sunfish (51.91%)

Channel Catfish (0.76%)

Carp (12.21%)

Fish community composition Mill Creek

26 May 2005

Graph provided by Dr. Michael Miller,

Universtity of Cincinnati

The fshcommunity wasneither diverse

nor abundant ...but the habitat

was deeper withplunge pools and

attracted much

larger fsh thanwould have beenthere previously

...

Bluegill SunshCourtesy of New York

Dept of EnvironmentalConservation


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Mill Creek Watershed Council of CommunitiesOne North Commerce Park Drive

Suite 24

Cincinnati OH 4525

Phone: 5.56.8800Fax: 5.56.880

Website: www.millcreekwatershed.org

To:

Mill Creek Watershed Council of CommunitiesSpring 2006 Council Meeting

Tuesday, April 11, 20062:00 - 4:00 pm

Sharonville Council Chambers10900 Reading Road

Sharonville Ohio

All Council meetings are open to the public.For more information, call the Council ofce at 513.563.8800.

Our annual membership drive starts in March

Membership applications are available online at

www.millcreekwatershed.org

or

by calling our ofce at 513.563.8800

winter 2006 voice of the mill creek newsletter, mill creek watershed council

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