Grant boosts Chippewa Lake preservation, protection

LAFAYETTE TWP. — A $328,219 grant from the state's Clean Ohio Fund has allowed the Medina County Park District to permanently preserve a 51.25-acre parcel of the Chippewa Lake Watershed with the goal of protecting water quality and giving visitors more opportunities to view the area's natural features. The parcel is on Lake Road north of state Route 162 in Lafayette Township, with site features including streams flowing into Chippewa Lake. Efforts will be made to restore wetlands and maintain a buffer zone of native vegetation along those waterways, which helps keep pollution, sediment and nutrients from flowing into the 325-acre lake, a statement said Wednesday. "There's an old saying that no matter where we live, we all live downstream," park district Director Nathan Eppink said in the statement. "The Medina County Park District has long been committed to preserving and restoring natural areas critical to the health of our local watersheds. This grant leverages local tax dollars to allow us to continue that important work for the benefit of Medina County and beyond." First approved by Ohio voters in 2000, the Clean Ohio Fund restores, protects and connects Ohio's natural and urban places by preserving green space and farmland, improving outdoor recreation and cleaning up brownfields. The buffer will be another aid to the lake as algae blooms in Chippewa Lake are largely attributed to nutrient buildup, much of which flows from inlets, and were first detected five years ago. Swimming advisories are issued when such nutrients exceed 6 parts per billion (ppb) in weekly samples. This year's first advisory was issued April 30 after a reading of 9.49 ppb. Readings jumped to 17.8 and 21.8 ppb over the following two weeks before gradually declining to 10.5 ppb by June 4 and 3.15 ppb by June 11. Since heavy rain in June that resulted in flooding, readings have not exceeded 2.61 ppb with the July 9 total being the only one above 0.20 ppb. Throughout 2018, readings frequently rose above 20 ppb and reached highs of 38.36 ppb on Aug. 7, 37 ppb on Sept. 18 and 35.3 ppb on Oct. 23. This summer, Israel-based Blue Green Water Technologies Ltd. applied a chemical compound to the lake's water called Lake Guard after hearing about Chippewa's algal bloom problems through Cuyahoga County officials. Blue Green approached the Medina County Park District, which agreed to let Blue Green use the application as a case study for future marketing campaigns, at no charge to the district. Chippewa Lake was purchased by the park district in 2007. Contact reporter Jonathan Delozier at (330) 721-4050 or jdelozier@medina-gazette.com.