Tuscarawas River Buried Valley Watershed Council

Watersheds: 
Tuscarawas River
Counties: 
Belmont, Guernsey, Carroll, Columbiana, Coshocton, Harrison, Holmes, Medina, Portage, Stark, Summit, Tuscarawas, Wayne
Contact Name: 
Freida Schott
Job Title: 
President
Address: 
P.O. Box 48
Dundee, OH 44624
Phone: 
(330) 756-2322
HUC: 
05040001,090

Our watershed council is made up of members of various community groups that started within the last 6 years due to the large influx of landfill expansion and proposed new landfill permits filed with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. In our 3-county district, Stark, Tuscarawas and Wayne Counties, we have four existing landfills. One has already received a permit to expand, the other three have permits pending at different stages in the PTI process  to expand. In addition to these four expansions, there are permits pending to install two new landfills. This is all within a 35-mile radius. Each group hired Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice from Bennett & Williams Consulting Firm as the consultant in our individual fights.

As we delved deeper into the hydro-geology with Dr. Rice, we found out that we have an excellent buried valley aquifer underlying all the areas we are concerned about. The only reason this aquifer has not been designated as a "sole source aquifer" yet is because the USEPA has not yet been petitioned to do so. As a newly forming watershed, our #1 goal is to petition the USEPA for sole source  protection on the Tuscarawas River Buried Valley Aquifer. We feel this is a pro-active way to stem the flow of undesirable land use  from being located over our groundwater. Future goals include: individuals becoming certified to monitor and test water quality, monitor future land-use applications, educating school children and the public on ways to better protect their water sources...

We meet on the 3rd Monday of each month at 7:30 PM in Bolivar, OH at the Village Hall.