While Lake Milton regularly reports contamination, sewer plans have been on the drawing board for at least 10 years

LAKE MILTON — There's something in the water at Lake Milton.

Spring and summer water samplings on the state park lake have surpassed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for E. coli at least eight times in the past 10 years, including this past May — leading to contamination advisories for swimmers.

Meanwhile, a plan for a new sanitary sewer to replace the septic systems of a few dozen homes southwest of the lake — which would likely improve water quality — as well as a new water line, has languished for at least a decade for lack of funding.

"If there's an issue with the water, we definitely need to do something about it," said Mahoning County Engineer Pat Ginnetti. "Historically, it's been challenging to get funding because of the limited number of homes that are there. In our department, a lot of the funding is based on buildings or residents served."

Milton Township is home to about 3,500 residents, according to Census Bureau estimates from 2018.

Ginnetti inherited those plans laid in 2014, on which engineers had been working for at least a couple years prior, he said. The sewer would feed to the wastewater treatment plant in Craig Beach, which already serves other parts of Milton Township and was determined in 2014 to have enough capacity for the 37 homes the new sewer would serve.

Those plans were then projected to cost about $9 million, but with seven years of inflation, it's estimated at $17 million now, including legal fees, Ginnetti said. Since the affected area is a private development without dedicated streets, the county would need to draw up easement agreements with each landowner — and likely pay them — before starting the work.

Ginnetti said the project was one of several infrastructure needs he brought to the attention of Mahoning County commissioners, who are now deliberating on how best to spend $42 million in American Rescue Plan funding.

But he and Commissioner David Ditzler agreed it doesn't seem wise to divert more than a third of the county's total windfall to a project that serves only a small portion of the county.

"The good of the many outweighs the good of the few," Ditzler said. "We need to weigh the projects that offer the most good, the most opportunities."

The U.S. EPA's limit for E. coli bacteria in recreational waters is 235 colony forming units, or cfu, per each 100-milliliter sample. When a sample exceeds that level, the Ohio Department of Health issues contamination advisories, often on signs posted near beaches, which stay up until a subsequent sample tests below the limit.

Lake Milton's samples have been above the limit once or twice almost every year since 2011, ODH records show. A May 19 sample showed 630 cfu, more than twice the limit. ODH also logged another seven instances since 2011 where bacteria levels tested in the triple digits, though they were still under the EPA limit.

By contrast, Salt Fork Lake in Guernsey County, considered to be one of the state's cleanest state park lakes, hasn't had triple-digit bacteria results since 2017, and only three of its samples have been over the limit in the past 10 years.

Elsewhere in the Valley, Guilford Lake in Columbiana County in late May reported more than 2,400 cfu in one sample. ODH has issued at least six contamination advisories there in the past 10 years. Mosquito Creek Reservoir in Trumbull County spent 61 days under contamination advisories between 2013 and 2016, but no advisories have been issued there since.

Ginnetti said while the septic systems southwest of the lake could be responsible for its bacteria, he thinks there could be more contamination coming from upstream. After a mass fish kill in Mill Creek MetroParks' Lake Newport in 2015 caused by sewage overflow, workers who tested for bacteria found more as they worked their way south, he said. Lake Milton is a reservoir fed by the Mahoning River, which begins near Winona in Columbiana County.

Though Lake MIlton Township Trustee Dave Tomaino responded to an interview request from Mahoning Matters on the proposed sewer project, he was not available before this article was published.

The reader who brought the issue to Mahoning Matters' attention on Twitter, as seen above, did not respond to a request for an interview.

This story was originally published July 24, 2021 at 4:30 AM with the headline "While Lake Milton regularly reports contamination, sewer plans have been on the drawing board for at least 10 years."