Wednesday, November 25th, 2015
Construction of Coldwater Creek treatment train making headway
By Jesse Pollack
CELINA - Work is progressing on the $2.1 million treatment train at Coldwater Creek.
Mercer County Community Development Director Jared Ebbing during a Lake Facilities Authority meeting Tuesday said the rock berm at the site is already 25 percent complete.
"It's great to see work finally beginning on a project we've been talking about for so long," he said.
The LFA initially had focused efforts on another treatment train project at Beaver Creek between Guadalupe Road and the village of Montezuma. But when permits were granted sooner than expected for the Coldwater Creek project, the group decided to act swiftly.
"The permit came through right after our last meeting," Ebbing told the newspaper. "We have to spend the money we've been given by the end of next year, so we wanted to move quickly,"
The Coldwater Creek treatment train project is being funded by $2.1 million from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, a $415,000 Ohio Public Works Commission grant and a $145,000 donation made by former landowner Rick Uppenkamp of Maria Stein.
The treatment train will pump 4 million gallons of water per day from Coldwater Creek through manmade wetlands to filter out nutrients and sediment before the flow reaches Grand Lake.
"Right now, the water is 6 feet deep," Ebbing said. "We want to dredge it in the spring so that the water is only about a foot and a half deep."
The action will help starve Grand Lake's toxic blue green algae of the phosphorous it thrives on, he added.
Lake Restoration Commission Manager Milt Miller, who also attended Tuesday's meeting, said he hopes the project will restore Coldwater Creek to its original condition.
"When I was a kid, that area was all lily pads and cattails - just like Mother Nature intended," he said.
