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Officials eye technology that aims to reduce phosphorous

May 25, 2017, Celina, OH – Local officials may test new technology designed to reduce the scourge of phosphorus in waterways.

Mercer County commissioners recently voiced support for two proposed pilot tests as long as overseers obtain all necessary Ohio Environmental Protection Agency permits.

Ag Solutions Coordinator Theresa Dirksen updated commissioners about the proposals. She was hired just more than a year ago by commissioners to search for affordable manure-management methods to help area farmers reduce nutrient runoff blamed for causing toxic algal blooms in Grand Lake.

An official affiliated with Great Lakes Biosystems of Wisconsin contacted Dirksen recently about pilot testing a new enzyme product in a local creek to reduce phosphorous, she said.

“What they’re proposing to do is place what he calls a bacteria block – it’s like a tote, is how he described it – where they would constantly feed their enzyme products into these totes and they have some aeration in between,” Dirksen explained to commissioners.

The officials believe the process could reduce phosphorous in the stream by 50 percent.
“We’re talking total phosphorous and dissolved reactive phosphorous,” she said.

An ideal location for such a test is the county-owned Montezuma Club Island wastewater treatment plant near Beaver Creek, Dirksen said. The official indicated he would need a stretch of creek 20 feet wide and 120 feet long for the test. READ MORE