Multi-State ORSANCO Strives to Keep Ohio River Clean

In 1948, states formed a compact dedicated to curbing river pollution.

The State Journal
25 March 2010
By James E. Casto

The French explorers who paddled down the Ohio River in the early 1700s called it La Belle Riviere -- "the beautiful river."

But by the 1940s, the Ohio River was anything but beautiful. The cities and industries that grew up on its banks simply dumped their untreated wastes in the river, turning it into a virtual sewer.

Some states tried to come to grips with the Ohio's pollution problem, but with little success. Rivers don't respect state borders. Clearly a regional approach was required. Thus, in 1948, the Ohio River states banded together to form the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO), an interstate compact dedicated to curbing the river's pollution.

Subsequently, Congress enacted tough anti-pollution legislation and provided federal grant money to help build communities build sewage treatment facilities.

The change has been dramatic. When the commission was organized in 1948, sewage treatment facilities were provided for only one of every 100 persons who lived along the Ohio. Today, that figure is virtually 100 percent. And there's been a comparable decline in industrial pollution.

"ORSANCO started as a grand experiment," said Alan H. Vicory Jr., executive director of the Cincinnati-based organization for more than 20 years. "I'm amazed at what's been accomplished."

Today, ORSANCO sets wastewater discharge standards, performs biological assessments, monitors the river's physical and chemical properties and conducts special surveys and studies. The commission also works closely with the U.S. Coast Guard and local agencies to coordinate emergency response activities for toxic spills or accidental discharges into the river.

Although today's Ohio River is vastly cleaner than that of the 1940s, ORSANCO still sees major problems that demand its attention -- high levels of bacteria in the water, the edibility of fish caught in the river and the growing contamination threat posed by discarded pharmaceuticals that end up in the river.

"Environmental protection is a mission that will never end," Vicory said.

ORSANCO is perhaps best known to the public for its sponsorship of the annual Ohio River Sweep.

Take a look at virtually any stretch of the Ohio's banks, and you'll see plastic bottles, cans, old tires and other items deposited along its banks by high water.

In 1989, ORSANCO teamed up with Ashland Oil for a one-day effort that saw more than 1,000 volunteers collect thousands of pounds of trash along a 120-mile section of riverbank.

Since then, the Ohio River Sweep has become an annual event. The various state environmental agencies have joined the effort, as have a long list of corporate sponsors. The 21st annual riverbank cleanup is scheduled for June 19.

Another highly popular ORSANCO program -- a floating science classroom and laboratory housed aboard an authentic sternwheel riverboat -- has been suspended for 2010, while the boat undergoes repairs.

For the past five years, the P.A. Denny River Education Center had traveled the Ohio and its tributaries, connecting school children and communities to the river.

Built in 1930, the Denny began its career as the Scott, a workboat for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Ohio and Kanawha rivers. The later was operated in Alabama and then purchased by Kanawha Valley coal operator Pete A. Denny in 1973.

Denny rebuilt the boat and rechristened her the Robin D in honor of his granddaughter. After Denny died in 1975, businessman Lawson Hamilton bought the boat, named it in Denny's honor and operated it as an excursion boat. Hamilton sold the boat to ORASANCO in 2004.