SWCD board deems allegations invalid

CELINA - Mercer County Soil and Water Conservation District board of supervisors on Thursday reviewed two allegations of improper manure application and two pollution allegations.

All of the allegations were deemed invalid.

The first manure application complaint was reported Oct. 31 on Guadalupe Road east of Botkins Road in the Grand Lake Watershed. The caller was concerned that liquid dairy manure had not been applied without a setback from the road ditch.

The report was investigated by SWCD engineer Theresa Dirksen and SWCD technician Matt Heckler. They found the manure had been applied in a soybean stubble field with no setback from the ditch. The practice is allowed if the waste is incorporated into the soil within 24 hours, Ohio nutrient management specialist Frances Springer said. The roadside culvert and tiles were dry, the report noted.

Springer spoke to the farmer who said he would incorporate the manure after he was done applying all of it. Springer checked the field Nov. 1 and the manure had been incorporated, the report said. The culvert and side ditch remained dry.

Farmers in the Grand Lake Watershed must follow more strict manure application rules than other farmers in Ohio since the state designated the watershed distressed Jan. 18, 2011. The designation came after blue-green algae toxins in Grand Lake sickened humans and animals in 2010. The lake's toxic blue-green algae is fed by nutrients, most of which run off farmland, the largest land use in the livestock heavy 58,000-acre watershed.

The second allegation of improver manure application was reported Nov. 4 on Dicke Road north of Clover Four Road in the Grand Lake Watershed. The caller was concerned manure was being applied during a rain event. Heckler and Dirksen also investigated this complaint. It was raining during the manure application.

Liquid hog manure and solid cattle pen pack manure were being applied to part of a field. It was immediately incorporated with a tractor and chisel behind the manure spreaders, the report said. No manure was found in waters of the state, the report said.

The rules for the watershed state that manure can be applied if there is not a 50 percent or greater chance of more than a half-inch of rain. On that day there was not, Springer said of the local forecast. The local forecast had called for an 80 percent chance of two-tenths of an inch of rain. Manure is more prone to reach creeks and streams and cause pollution during rain and snowmelt events.

The first invalid pollution complaint was reported Oct. 30 on Dull Road, south of Watkins Road, in the Wabash River Watershed. Heckler and Dirksen went to the site and found a few exposed carcasses sticking out of a compost pile. No pollution was found in waters of the state, the report said

Composting is performed to naturally break down and dispose of dead livestock. The bulking agent used in the compost pile was manure, the report said.

Heckler and Dirksen asked the farmer to cover the carcasses with sawdust or wood chips and said they would return to check on compliance. On Nov. 5, they returned and found the carcasses had been properly covered.

The second invalid pollution complaint was reported Nov. 3 on the west side of Mercer-Auglaize County Line Road, north of Brockman Road, in the Grand Lake Watershed. The caller reported pink water in a ditch.

Heckler and Springer went to the site and thought it smelled like diesel fuel; they contacted the Mercer County Emergency Management Agency. An EMA official arrived and placed a petroleum absorbent sock in the ditch to soak up the fuel. The information was turned over to the EMA, which did not find the source of the fuel, the report said.

Another part of the distressed watershed rules, effective next month for Grand Lake Watershed farmers, is a manure application ban. From Dec. 15 through March 1 farmers are banned from applying manure unless they receive permission from the state. Outside those dates, surface application of manure on frozen- and/or snow-covered ground is allowed if the waste is injected or incorporated within 24 hours of application.

This year marks the third year for the ban.

The next SWCD meeting is 8:30 a.m. Dec. 9 in the office at the Mercer County Central Services Building, Celina.