Seemingly small, everyday actions – like over-salting driveways or improper application of fertilizer on lawns – add up to negatively affect water quality in Licking County.
“It’s death by a thousand cuts,” said Kyle Seitz, watershed specialist for the Licking County Soil and Water Conservation District.
Seitz has led the district’s “Stream Team” for about two years now. The Stream Team is a growing group of volunteers who monitor water quality across the county, searching for warning signs of pollution before they become major problems. Seitz leads the program, training volunteers to collect data on stream health.
The volunteers collect water samples and use small test strips, called test tabs, to check pH levels, nutrient levels (such as nitrogen and phosphorus), and dissolved oxygen.
Volunteers also look at the physical environment around the stream. They use something called the Citizen’s Quality Habitat Evaluation Index, or CQHEI, which helps them determine if the stream can support aquatic life. It’s not super technical – volunteers check for things such as how fast the water is flowing, what the stream bed is made of, and the health of plants along the stream banks.
“It’s kind of subjective,” Seitz said. “You measure by things like water depth – up to your knee, up to your hip – but the goal is to understand if there’s enough habitat to support the ecology you’re hoping to find in that stream.”
The next Stream Team training session will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 15 at Hoback Park, 42 Dorsey Mill Road East in Heath, with a rain date of April 18.
Jenna Baer, the district’s AmeriCorps education and outreach specialist, has made a plea to potential volunteers, which requires only attending the one-time, two-hour training workshop. To sign up, contact Seitz at 740-670-5330 or KyleSeitz@LickingSWCD.com.
“What are you waiting for?” Baer said. “We all drink water in Licking County. … If you’re concerned about its quality, sign up for the Stream Team workshop.”
After completing the training, volunteers can begin their work for the Stream Team.
Baer said that “as Licking County transitions from a large farming community to a manufacturing hub, I feel it’s very important to ensure that we know all we can about the current state of our water and monitor it closely.”
The Licking County agricultural landscape has already begun to shift. In 2017, the county had 220,486 acres of farmland, a 2% decrease from 2012, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. This reflects the steady decline of farming in the region. At the same time, net farm income dropped by 61%, putting economic pressure on local farms. As these changes continue, monitoring water quality becomes increasingly important.
The Stream Team, which currently has 14 volunteers, provides an early warning system for changes in water quality. These volunteers collect samples from sites across Licking County, including areas along the South Fork Licking River and Raccoon Creek. Their findings help to identify potential issues before they become serious problems. For example, if volunteers suddenly stop finding macroinvertebrates in a stream, they can infer that there may be a problem with the quality of water in that area.
The Stream Team relies on private landowners being willing to grant them access to streams running through their land, which means they need to explain to landowners the value of their work.
Weather is one of the main challenges the volunteers face.
“We like them to get out once a month, even if the weather doesn’t really dictate that. I mean, we don’t want them out in this form or anything like that, but like, if it’s a colder day, you might not want to be outside, but it might be a great day to do your water quality testing,” Seitz said.
In the summer of 2024, Licking County experienced one of its worst droughts in decades. Conditions in the eastern and southern half of Licking County were so severe that some springs dried up, and farmers were forced to haul water to livestock, while others began feeding their animals hay meant for winter feeding. Those conditions left most farmers deeply concerned about their livelihoods.
| Read more: A wet end to 2024 assures that the drought is over in Licking County and most of Ohio
Even though heavy snowfall and rainfall at the end of the year helped end the drought, the impact was still felt throughout the county.
Baer, who monitors a wooded stream site on public land, said the drought had a noticeable effect there.
“The water simply wasn’t flowing; I was finding slightly elevated nutrient levels and mostly pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrates where there were hardly any before,” she said.
While Baer noticed immediate changes at her test site due to the drought, long-term monitoring helps track larger patterns in Licking County’s waterways. The U.S. Geological Survey operates a monitoring station on the North Fork Licking River at Utica, for example, which provides real-time data on water levels and streamflow. With records dating back to 1939, the station helps scientists track changes over time and detect potential drought-related impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
Even though these monitoring stations provide valuable long-term data, they cover only a few specific locations. The Stream Team helps fill in the gaps by collecting data from smaller streams and areas that might not be monitored otherwise. Their work adds a more localized and detailed perspective to what’s happening in Licking County’s waterways.
“There’s something profoundly spiritual about spending time outdoors, and I think many of us who work inside but love nature can get disconnected from that spirituality,” Baer said.
“I find great satisfaction not only in having an excuse to visit the beautiful wooded area that is my test site each month, but also knowing that I’m contributing to the conservation of our most precious resource,” said Baer, who is looking forward to getting out on the stream and starting sampling for the new season.
The Stream Team isn’t unique to Licking County. Similar programs exist throughout Ohio and across the country, including national efforts such as the Izaak Walton League’s water quality initiative and the Scenic Rivers Program in Ohio. The opportunity is there for those looking to get involved. Anyone can protect local streams, one sample at a time.
Volunteers trained during the April 15 Stream Team workshop will be assigned a stream site and soon begin providing data each month to the Licking County Soil & Water Conservation District.
Emma Wecht writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.