Meigs Creek Subwatershed Management Plan

Brenda Lazarus

For those of you who haven’t met me yet, my name is Brenda Lazarus, and I am the new OSM/VISTA that will be working with the Friends of the Lower Muskingum River (FLMR) this year. I graduated in May from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and began work with the FLMR last month. During the next year, I will be working on many projects throughout the Lower Muskingum River watershed. However, my focus will be on the Meigs Creek subwatershed located in Morgan, Noble, and Muskingum counties.

Some of you might be aware that a grant by the Ohio EPA and U.S. EPA in 2005 helped fund an Ohio University project to study Meigs Creek. The goal of this project was to identify locations with abnormal water quality indicators in the subwatershed and create a subwatershed management plan. Problems identified in the area included high levels of fecal coliform (which is an indicator of E. coli), low presence of biological communities, and elevated amounts of certain metals in the water.

During the next year, I will be working to implement the action plan laid out in the Meigs Creek Subwatershed Management Plan to improve water quality in this area. With the help of FLMR’s summer intern, Jesse Daubert, I have already begun testing locations within the Meigs Creek subwatershed for E. coli to determine the magnitude of this issue in the subwatershed. I am also planning to spend the next several months building relationships with farmers, landowners, and other residents in the subwatershed and educating them about the importance of good water quality in the streams near where they live.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the Meigs Creek subwatershed but I am excited to take on this challenge during the upcoming year. I am planning a Meigs Creek watershed tour in the fall and I hope to see some of you there. I look forward to getting to know all of you this year.