The Ohio EPA has approved a permit for the South Beach Mobile Home Park to discharge up to 2,000 gallons of treated wastewater per day into an unnamed tributary of Rocky Fork Lake.
The tributary empties directly into the lake.
According to the EPA, the discharge will not exceed the chemical-specific water quality standards that protect aquatic life and human health. However, the activity will result in a change to the current water quality of the unnamed tributary and subsequently Rocky Fork Lake.
That does not necessarily mean, though, that the change in water quality will be for the worse.
According to Joshua Jackson, an EPA environmental specialist, the South Beach Mobile Home Park, located at 11418 Spruance Road, has been discharging wastewater into the unnamed tributary and Rocky Rock Lake since late 1960s without any type of a permit.
A 1999 inspection by the EPA found the park did not have a discharge permit and Jackson said the recently issued permit was a result of trying to get the old problem cleaned up.
"Basically, they've gone without a discharge permit all these years and now they will be regulated. Their wastewater will have to sampled, tested and they'll have to take a lot of other steps to make sure what they're discharging meets EPA standards," Jackson said. "Without a permit, there was no government control over the plant there."
Jackson said the park's old wastewater system emptied into an inadequate sludge pond that was not capable of treating the waste.
"The new permit was written so it would protective of the water quality standards at Rocky Fork Lake," Jackson said. "The goal is that the situation at the mobile home park will improve."
The Ohio EPA held a public hearing on the permit on Feb. 10, 2004 and comments on the permit were accepted until Feb. 17, 2004. The permit and technical support information can be reviewed and/or copied at the Ohio EPA's Southwest District Office, 401 E. Fifth St. in Dayton, by first calling Sally Brown at (937) 285-6025 to make an appointment.
