Portage County’s drinking water; where it comes from

If you live in Portage County, chances are your drinking water comes from groundwater sources.

Due to the aging infrastructure of the United States water supply, it’s good to look at where water comes from and how it’s treated at a local level.

“Water quality is very important,” said Lee Benson, operations manager for Portage County Water Resources. “It’s tested daily and needs checked daily.” Common chemicals checked are things such as the PH levels and fluoride levels; 90 percent of which is checked onsite in the lab. The other 10 percent is sent off-site for research. This is because it needs checked once every year or two, or because the onsite lab doesn’t have the expensive equipment needed to check for special chemicals. Benson said the Ohio EPA requires Water Resources to check the water makeup every day.

Both the Shalersville and Brimfield water plants use groundwater wells as their drinking sources. The city of Ravenna water treatment system uses surface water drawn from lake Hodgson. “We have an agreement with Cleveland and the city of Ravenna to bring in more water if need be,” Benson said. The source of the groundwater wells comes from aquifers that are fed from the Cuyahoga River said Benson.

Eric Adams is the head of the Drinking and Ground Waters division at the Ohio EPA and stated that he “can’t respond to reporters questions.” Adams referred me to the Ohio EPA public relations department even though he is the expert source on this topic. The Ohio EPA website can be found here.

“Clean water is essential to human survival,” said Kaylee Brillhart, research specialist and recent Kent State biology graduate. “Without water quality and sustainability, farming, urbanization and conservation would not be possible. Microbes, sediment and pollutants that are naturally found in water can make us very sick. Water cleaning is important in order to get rid of these harmful toxins to humans.”

The Official Government Website of Portage County, Ohio lists five water treatment plants which supply water to a portion of the 160,000 county residents. The Shalersville, Brimfield, Rivermoor, City of Ravenna Water Connection and Village of Mantua Water Connection combine for a peak capacity of 8,020,000 gallons of water per day (GPD).

The Portage County Water Supply Facilities has a “Staff of 49 professionals including: plant operators; equipment operators; biologists; engineers; engineering technicians; and administrative staff,” according to the government website. Both the in-house analysts and the actual testing facilities need to be certified by the state in order to conduct water quality tests according to Benson.

The Portage County water facilities features 78 miles of water lines. The three main facilities produce an average of 3,120,000 gallons of water per day plus 200,000 gallons per day supplying water to the equivalent of 30,000 people. The water treatment includes iron removal, filtration and disinfection. The Shalersville plant features water softening facilities. Softening removes calcium, magnesium and other metal cations commonly found in hard water.

According to the Portage County single audit report for the year ended in December 31, 2014, the actual total expenses for the Portage County Water Fund was about $5 million.

The Cleveland Water Alliance states that 21 percent of the world’s freshwater is in the Great Lakes. The Cleveland Water Alliance “is a non-profit organization that joins Northeast Ohio corporations, universities and government agencies to drive economic development through water innovation and promote the value of water to our region.” The Cleveland Water Alliance also states that 4.9 billion people will experience severe water shortage by the year 2050 and that 1.5 million jobs in the Great Lakes region rely on the freshwater source.

Equally as important as water treatment is waste removal. Portage County has 11 operational treatment plants plus dedicated capacity in the Summit County Fishcreek, City of Ravenna and Village of Mantua wastewater treatment plants.

The water treatment facilities feature approximately 312 miles of sewer lines and over 100 pump stations around the county. The treatment plants treat an average of 5.4 million gallons of wastewater per day with a maximum wastewater treatment capacity of 9.4 million GPD. The wastewater treatment facilities have a service area equivalent to a city of 70,000 people.

“As a biologist, studying water cleanliness can help us prevent future problems such as water shortage and disease prevention,” Brillhart said.

Portage County water facilities has the capacity to turn out 8 million gallons of fresh water per day. Wowowowowow. #jmcrpp

— Alex Cossin (@Adubbed) April 12, 2018