Sun staff
During their meeting on May 25, the Clermont County Commissioners approved a joint funding agreement with the United States Geological Survey to maintain a stream gauge located on the East Fork of the Little Miami River in the village of Williamsburg.
The agreement, which is not to exceed $14,000, will help pay for the continued operation of the donated stream gauge equipment, which measures and records rainfall, stream height and water quality data, according to Hannah Lubbers, project manager for the Office of Environmental Quality.
The stream gauge is one tool among many used by the East Fork Water Quality Cooperative to monitor and mitigate harmful algal blooms in Harsha Lake, Lubbers said.
“It’s a small part of a big watershed monitoring program that we have,” she added.
The information gathered from the rain gauge is used to calibrate a watershed model, which helps officials identify sources of pollutants to the lake.
“They collect the water quality data to determine the benefits of the best management practices that are being implemented on some of the agricultural property upstream, to try to predict harmful algae blooms on the lake and to improve the water quality on the lake as well,” said Lyle Bloom, Clermont County Water Resource Department director of utilities.
The partnership to maintain the stream gauge as been ongoing since December 2012.
The program has been paid for, in an alternating annual basis, by the United States Army Corp of Engineers and the OEQ.
The joint funding most recently approved by the commissioners is for the period from Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016. The county last paid for the maintenance in 2014, according to Bloom.
“If I recall, that was one of our first stream monitors,” said Commissioner Bob Proud. “It’s been there quite a while.”