State pledges funds to improve Celina's water supply

CELINA - The recently passed two-year state budget contains $4 million to help communities, specifically Celina, improve their drinking water quality, Senate President Keith Faber, R-Celina, said.

However, Celina will still need to apply for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources funds, intended to assist continental divide communities affected by the Great Lakes Compact, Faber noted.

Celina Mayor Jeff Hazel said the funds could help the city secure a better drinking water source. It may take city officials as long as a year to develop a thorough application and submit an achievable plan to the state, he noted, pointing out that the city isn't eying any specific sites at this time.

"There's so many things that go into it," Hazel said about developing a plan, adding the city would need to hire a consultant to help in the process.

City officials, Hazel said, have been talking to state authorities for some time about securing funds to eventually wean Celina off Grand Lake as its drinking water source. Although drinking water drawn from Grand Lake is clean and safe after treated, it's in Celina's long-term interest to switch to an alternative underground source to reduce treatment costs, Hazel has said. The city spends around $500,000 a year on chemicals to treat the water.

"We've been working on this process for a good two years now ... to try to find a source of water that is not directly within the lake that does not violate the Grand Lakes Compact, so we've got some real challenges," Hazel said.

Officials the last several months have continued to explore potential sites.

The Great Lakes Compact heavily restricts diversions of water from the Great Lakes Watershed. Groundwater cannot be drawn from the watershed unless it eventually is returned as treated effluent. Celina's sewage treatment plant lies south of the continental divide and its discharge flows away from the watershed. Any well dug by the city likely would draw from a strong north-south flow that closely follows the ancient Teays River valley. But the geographic area is limited because of a continental divide issue. The drainage divide is heavily regulated and the city could not draw water from north of that area and discharge it to the south through the sewer plant.

Several years ago, Celina was under findings and orders from the EPA to rebuild or update its water plant to bring the city into environmental compliance. Trihalomethanes, a byproduct of organic material in the lake water and the chlorine used to treat it, remained at high levels.

The city in 2008 added a $6 million water treatment facility equipped with eight carbon tanks that adds granular activated carbon filtration to the treatment process to stop the formation of THMs.

Earlier this year, city officials had their sights set on more than 16 acres of land north of state Route 703 - farmland and wooded area that John J. Bertke and James F. Lampert were willing to sell to Celina for $750,000 - for potential water wells. Their hopes were dashed after tests revealed the water was too hard and would have cost significantly more to soften back to levels to which customers are accustomed.