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Poland woman urges caution, seeks government action on Yellow Creek issue
POLAND
Nearly a year later, Cody Stacy still doesn’t have feeling in his right kneecap.
The lanky blonde 13-year-old doesn’t seem bothered by it; on a sunny October afternoon, he plays outside at the track and field near the middle school.
It’s just yards away from the site where, in November 2014, he tumbled down a steep bank and into Yellow Creek. His injury and resulting bacterial infection sent him to two hospitals, into three operations and physical therapy. It also caused him to miss weeks of school and left his family with medical bills that keep coming.
A specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital told the family the infection was at least in part caused by bacteria from fecal matter that got into the cut. His family believes the bacteria came from the creek.
Subsequent testing a few weeks after the accident found that the E. coli count in that section of the creek was 8,400 colony-forming units per 100 milliliters of water. In Mill Creek Park’s Lake Newport, County Health Commissioner Patricia Sweeney said 576 units per 100 milliliters of water was above the level which the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency calls a potential public health risk.
Cody, now an eighth-grade student, is reticent to talk about the event. “Does this really have to go in the newspaper?” he asked.
His grandmother, Barbara Stacy, who retired from Po- land schools after teaching 40 years, thinks it does. She’s on a mission, and she’s taken her case to village council, the township board of trustees and the school board.
“All I want to happen is to keep the children from playing in Yellow Creek,” she said. “I just don’t want somebody else to go through what Cody went through.”
THE MISSION
Stacy is pushing for government and school district officials to warn the public to stay away from the water.
Officials, however, say that step would be premature.
Regular testing for bacteria is not done at that part of the creek, so the data to support that policy isn’t there, they said.
“I’m not saying there’s not bacteria there. There’s bacteria everywhere. But if you take it a step further, think about every surface water,” said Stephanie Dyer, environmental program manager at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, which is the water-quality management agency for Mahoning and Trumbull counties.
“Are you going to tell everybody not to go in every surface water, including the ocean when you go on vacation? It’s a very thin line here, without having the data to back it up,” she said.
THE FALL
On Fridays in Poland, kids are everywhere.
They stream out of McKinley Elementary and the middle school, and walk with their friends through the center of town.
Cody was with his friends just after school let out Friday, Nov. 7. A few blocks away, his grandmother was pulling out of Union Elementary when she got a call from him saying he was hurt.
“I did a U-turn on 224, blew my horn and went through three lights. I was there in one minute,” she said.
A group of boys had carried Cody up the embankment where he had fallen, and his grandmother placed him in her car.
“There was blood everywhere,” she said. “He said, ‘Grandma, am I going to die?’ I said, ‘No, Cody.’”
Later, she recalled holding back tears. “I looked at his leg and I could see the bone.”
She rushed him to Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley in Boardman.
“It was horrible,” said his mother, April Brown. “They had to call me out of work. When I got to the hospital, I couldn’t believe it – it was down to the tendon.”
Medical workers sewed up his knee and told the family to watch for signs of infection.
The next day, he was back at the hospital with a 103-degree fever.
Two days later, Cody was sent to a hospital in Akron – where he spent a few weeks – to see a specialist.
“They took all of the sutures out, and they vacuumed it. They sucked out all of the infection – but they had to do that two other times,” Brown said.
“He was very scared. He didn’t know what was going to happen with his leg,” she said. “I think he thought he was going to lose his leg, because they couldn’t get hold of the infection. And I did have that fear, to be honest with you.”
When Cody was released from the hospital, it was with a picc-line – an intravenous method to administer antibiotics – that he used for another 10 days. After that came physical therapy.
‘LET’S GET THE MESSAGE OUT’
Horrified by what had happened to her grandson, Stacy became determined to do something. She’s now addressed village council, township trustees and the school board; she’s also involved the Mahoning County District Board of Health and the Ohio EPA.
Testing done by the OEPA after Cody’s accident found extremely high levels of bacteria; testing done under normal sampling conditions in August, however, found counts that were well below the threshold OEPA considers to be a public-health hazard.
“When the levels came back elevated during the winter months, but it’s not elevated during the base-flow time, it’s difficult to predict what’s happening,” said Patricia Sweeney, county health commissioner.
Regular water-testing is not conducted at that site, but officials say bacteria levels are bound to fluctuate under certain weather conditions; they also say the issue extends well beyond one spot in Yellow Creek.
“Anytime you’re dealing with a watershed, and you have rainfall ... any E. coli, whether it’s coming from farmland, from wildlife, from failing septic systems, you’ll have elevated levels throughout your lakes, your creeks, your streams throughout your watershed,” said Ryan Tekac, environmental health director for the county health board.
The Yellow Creek watershed, which drains an area of roughly 40 square miles, originates in Columbiana County and ends in the city of Struthers, where it meets the Mahoning River. The entire watershed – like any other – faces pollution issues, experts say, making it a challenge to focus on one specific spot in a stream.
Dyer suggests the county health board conduct a testing program there.
“I think in this case, a longer study needs to be done, similar to what’s going on in Mill Creek, to determine what the normal bacteria levels are for Yellow Creek,” she said.
Health-board officials say they could do that, but another entity would have to pay for it.
“We don’t have the resources to just start testing,” Sweeney said. Mill Creek MetroParks is covering the cost – so far, roughly $3,000 – for the 12-week testing program that almost is complete there.
Stacy, too, would like to see testing done but thinks the public needs to be warned in any case.
“What happens if we get another 8,000-plus count? What if the next kid isn’t as lucky as Cody?” she said.
PLAY IT SAFE
Dyer and Sweeney agree that public awareness is important. Dyer, however, cautions against a quick conclusion.
With young children of her own, she said she’s sympathetic to Stacy, but said “I would just caution against telling people not to go in Yellow Creek.”
“I take my kids out to the stream behind us, where we live, and there’s a cornfield that abuts it. That’s the thing – I don’t want people to be afraid to get into the stream, because that’s where the learning and the science are at,” she said. “We don’t have enough data at this time to suggest that there’s a definite bacterial problem, because we don’t have the study that is conclusive.”
What’s needed, officials seem to agree, is caution.
“Right now, before we have the data that suggests otherwise, it’s ‘Keep back. There’s a steep slope. Beware,’” Dyer said. “If you’re going to go in the stream, just be aware that these things are natural – there is bacteria in it. You’re not going to find a stream that is absent of any bacteria.
“It’s more of an awareness of water quality, and making people aware, ‘OK, I’m in this stream – think about it. What’s going into this stream?’” she said. “Know your surroundings. Play it safe.”