Officials say nasty water behind recent canal fish kill

ST. MARYS - City employees on Wednesday worked to get water flowing in the Miami & Erie Canal after stagnant, algae-filled water and low oxygen levels reportedly caused a fish kill.

Employees were able to flush some dead fish and debris down the canal, but Mayor Patrick McGowan said the overall problem is due to the quality of water entering the canal from Grand Lake. The fish die-off and the algae issues in the canal and in the St. Marys River prove the need for a canal treatment train, McGowan said.

Local officials have built treatment trains on creeks that flow into Grand Lake over the years. The areas divert a portion of water from the creeks into a series of manmade wetlands which filter out sediment and nutrients before releasing the cleaner water into the lake.

Algae has become an issue from the St. Marys Bulkhead, the divider between the canal and the lake, to the downtown area; much of the water is an opaque brownish-green or covered in mats of algae. McGowan said city officials noticed Tuesday that fish were beginning to school toward the surface of the water in the canal, and Wednesday he estimated thousands of fish likely had died.

McGowan said the city's water superintendent told him the water was dead, so void of oxygen that no fish could live.

The stench from the dead fish could be smelled around Memorial Park by the canal. Safety and service director Greg Foxhoven said the city had received numerous calls and emails Wednesday from residents asking what was being done about the canal.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the canal's gate had been cleaned and cleared of debris, improving water flow in the canal, and bubbler systems also were adjusted, according to McGowan. The bubblers had been turned too high, not allowing water to flow as it should have. After those measures were taken, the water began to look better, though the stench still reportedly lingered.

"This is not a problem that will be solved overnight," McGowan said.

While warmer water in the canal was part of the problem, water from Grand Lake also was an issue, he continued.

City officials have been talking with state representatives about the creation of an H2Ohio-funded treatment train on the canal to help clean the water that flows through St. Marys - something McGowan said he's been advocating for since 2012.

A treatment train potentially could be built south of the city, where the feeder canal from Grand Lake flows into the Miami & Erie Canal, McGowan said. It may only remove from the canal water about half of the nutrients that feed algae blooms, but even that would help tremendously with water quality issues, he continued.

The water in the canal flows into the St. Marys River, which flows into the Maumee River and then into Lake Erie. One of the main goals of the H2Ohio program is to reduce nutrient runoff, a major cause of algae blooms, in the Lake Erie watershed, McGowan pointed out.

The city reportedly has been working to secure H2Ohio funds, and land upon which to build a treatment train south of the city, according to both McGowan and Foxhoven. Water then could be pumped from the canal, processed in the wetland area of the treatment train, and then pumped back into the canal. There's no word on when officials might hear if they've been awarded any funding, but Foxhoven said they felt good about their chances.

Officials reportedly also pursuing an effort to take ownership of canal waters within the city limits from the state. The city has been pursuing the effort since former governor John Kasich's administration, Foxhoven said. The process reportedly was delayed when Gov. Mike DeWine came into office as new state officials needed time to familiarize themselves with the work of the old administration, and again when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, Foxhoven said it is still in the works.

While city administrators are hesitant to use city resources to maintain a state-owned canal, they would feel more inclined to do so if it was city-owned, Foxhoven and McGowan said.

Foxhoven said Wednesday he felt the city was better suited to take care of the canal, and could dredge it if the city were to take control of it.