$2.6M to renovate rock wall barrier

CELINA - A deteriorating rock wall barrier part of the Prairie Creek treatment train that filters water flowing into Grand Lake will be reinforced and heightened thanks to a $2.6 million earmark in the state capital budget.

The Lake Improvement Association and other local organizations reportedly lobbied the state Legislature for funding to repair the wall that encloses 100 acres of in-lake, or littoral, wetlands in Franklin Township.

The wetlands naturally purify the inflows of water, removing nutrients that feed toxic algal blooms in the lake.

"It actually ended up in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' budget where it belongs because this is the state's asset and they should work to take care of it," LIA Vice President Jeff Vaushler said of the $2.6 million allocation.

Lake Facilities Authority board members in July 2017 turned over management of the Prairie Creek and Coldwater Creek treatment trains to ODNR.

"Right now we're working to try to get the administrative allocation of those funds done locally so that we can control and probably do it (the project) a little more efficient and effective spending the state's dollars that they awarded us," Vaushler added.

Prairie Creek Treatment Train was completed in two phases on the south side of the lake on State Route 219, east of the Aqua View Estates subdivision. Phase 1 was constructed in 2012 and Phase 2 in 2014, according to Mercer County Agriculture and Natural Resource Director Theresa Dirksen Dirksen.

The site includes roughly 30 acres of constructed wetlands, 70 acres of forested wetlands and 100 acres of littoral wetlands. Running water through wetland areas gives native plants a chance to extract excess nutrients contained in farm runoff that fuel blue-green algae growth in the lake.

Water is pumped from Prairie Creek into the wetlands at a maximum rate of 1.3 million gallons per day during the growing season of April-October.

"We created a littoral wetland in the lake itself with that rock wall which has been slowly deteriorating over the years due to wind and wave action," Dirksen said. "There's spots where it's almost cut out completely, so our concern is that we pumped dredge material behind that to create the wetland and we don't want to lose that."

Dirksen didn't know the precise dimensions of the wall offhand when contacted by the newspaper, but said plans call for reinforcing and heightening the rock structure.

"We'll be buttressing both sides, the inner and outer slope, and raising it probably two foot higher," she said. "Hopefully this fix will last longer than 10 years, but it's going to need continuous maintenance just like everything else that we put on a landscape."

Local officials are in ongoing discussions with the state about project administration, Dirksen said.

No timeline has been established for the work.

"It depends on how the funds are administered," she said. "If we do it locally, we can get it done in about 18 months. If ODNR does it, it will probably take a little longer than that."

A similar rock wall barrier part of the Coldwater Creek Treatment Train is in better shape but will require the same upgrades in a few years, assuming funding is secured for the work, Dirksen noted.

A pedestrian bridge and observation tower may be included as part of the project, Dirksen had said in early 2023.

"On Coldwater Creek people could actually access the entire littoral wall, walking," she had said. "There is a potential connection where we could connect it all the way to the wildlife area, and there's some discussion with ODNR to maybe open up to the public part of the wildlife area in the future."