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by Joe Cornely

Want cleaner water? Talk to Mother Nature, not local livestock farmers. That’s what the science says in some new data on bacterial contamination in the St. Joseph River, which runs through Williams County in extreme northwest Ohio.

A study done by Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) indicates that 70 percent of the bacterial contamination in the river comes from geese. Livestock contamination was the lowest along with human sources at 10 to 15 percent. Horses, dogs and cats were the other more significant contributors.

That’s welcome news to Williams County Farm Bureau President Marvin Dietsch. The report "totally dumps on its head the premise that our main concern today is agriculture," he said. Referring to two large livestock farms – a dairy and a hog operation – along a creek feeding into the St. Joseph, Dietsch said the report "vindicates the (livestock) industry; it proves what we’re doing is right."

He's backed up by Deborah Ross, Ph.D., who was IPFW's chief investigator. Quoted in a story in the Bryan Times, Ross said she specifically tested up and downstream from several livestock farms and found little contamination. "This shows their management practices are effective. This indicates that the large operations are doing what they're supposed to be doing."

The study was funded in part by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, that state's version of the EPA. That fact was not lost on Dietsch, who raises grains but has no livestock. "The beauty of this is it was paid for by EPA."

The St. Joseph runs through Williams County between Indiana and Michigan. The IPFW study was designed to assess the water’s recreational attributes – to determine whether it is safe to swim or boat in. During the study, IPFW "fingerprinted" the bacteria, identifying, by species, the specific sources of contamination.

There's a significant result from the report beyond the good news about livestock farms according to Larry Antosch, OFBF’s director of environmental research. In at least this particular case, EPA standards for water quality may not be attainable. "Very realistically, that could be the case. Given the fact that the wildlife contribution is as high as it is, you may not be able to reach that target number just because of those natural background levels," Antosch said.

While he complimented the science used in the study of the St. Joseph, Antosch is concerned that not all water quality research is up to par. In Northeast Ohio, the Mahoning River underwent a similar study of bacterial contamination. This study, done by a private consultant on behalf of U.S. EPA, was "very, very lax on detail," according to Antosch.

Following his review of the Mahoning River report, he said, "In this case I’m just trying to get a good understanding of the bacteria that’s washing into the river. For example, they’ve distributed the amount of bacteria produced by wildlife across the watershed. And then somehow, maybe by waving their hands, they’ve determined that some of that makes it to the waters. I don’t know how, and they don’t tell you how. And so I’m just sitting here, looking through my crystal ball, and having to guess." That’s not good enough Antosch said.

"It’s hard for us to do a good scientific review and comment on the document when you don’t know what the rationale was behind the numbers that are in there." He said OFBF has sent a letter to EPA admonishing them on the quality of the report.

It’s this kind of situation that has Dietsch motivated to share the good news from the St. Joseph report. He’s been actively pursuing the facts about the quality of the river’s water since 1997. With the IPFW data in hand, he’s pleased to be able to refute the assumption that livestock are the cause of most water quality problems. "The big lesson here is, we haven’t been using science," he said.