GIRARD YSU official discusses river's future

Compared to other regions, northeast Ohio is a water-rich area, a speaker says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
GIRARD -- A clean Mahoning River watershed will improve quality of life and economic development opportunities for the region, community leaders said at a forum at the high school.
"A lot of the industries around the country are looking increasingly at their water. A lot of the western part of the country is basically just drying out," Jim Converse of Vienna, co-chairman of the economic development task force of the faith-based group ACTION, said Wednesday.
"And the water quality that's here -- the improvement in it -- will do a lot to enhance the ability to attract in new industry, especially with the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity," Converse added.
The corridor consists of 1,400 acres in Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers. "Having cleaner water there will just increase the caliber and quality of industry they can attract,'' Converse said.
"Our water quality is intricately entwined with our quality of life, and with that goes economic development," said Scott C. Martin, professor and chairman of civil and environmental engineering at Youngstown State University.
Public meeting
Martin was conducting a public meeting on the condition of the Mahoning River watershed, which was designed to obtain comments concerning development of a Mahoning River Watershed Action Plan to protect and improve water quality.
Martin, who is serving as the plan's coordinator, said he expects the plan to be completed by July 2003. The planning process is being funded by an $87,000 U.S. EPA grant. A watershed is the land area that water drains from to form a stream or river.
If water resources are well taken care of in northeast Ohio, "Our association as part of the Rust Belt could end, and we could take on a proactive label of 'the water belt,'" said Alexander T. Bobersky, assistant director of community development for the city of Warren, who said he was summarizing the thoughts of a Cleveland ecologist.
"We are water-rich in northeast Ohio and in the Great Lakes region. We're not in the Great Lakes basin, but we're still water-rich, relatively speaking, compared to Western states, and that pendulum of development could swing back in our direction when water becomes a real scarce commodity," Martin replied.
"We rely on the waters of the Mahoning River watershed [including its lakes] for drinking water, for recreation. The quality of our water is highly dependent upon what we do with our land," he said. Water pollution comes from industrial and municipal waste and septic system discharges, mine drainage, soil erosion and runoff of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers, he said.
The action plan could include recommendations for better control of septic systems and more tree-planting along streambanks to prevent soil erosion, filter pollution, provide shade and shelter wildlife, he said.