# Upground reservoir info - Marysville & Columbus, plus a bit of Hoover



## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

As I mentioned in the Oshay Report thread, last Friday I was a meeting of the Greenways and Water Quality group at MORPC. So instead of a fishing report, I can provide sort of a fishing forecast.

Two speakers from Marysville's division of water gave a presentation about their plans for a new water treatment plant (the current one is in a former ice house from 1890) and one topic was Marysville's upground reservoir which went on line in 2009.

The reservoir has a gravel path around it, which gets a lot of joggers and walkers, but there's no boating or fishing. One speaker said "I had to have some signs made saying, go there but don't have any fun." 

They are pursuing a grant from ODNR to develop facilities for fishing. The reservoir is already stocked. One stipulation of the grant is that they'll have to allow boating, with a ten horsepower limit.

They gave a slide presentation and I asked MORPC if they would make it available online. If they do, I'll post a link here.

As for Columbus, the reservoir is already full - it filled in six months instead of the two years they expected. They said it has some big fish in it, and they guess the fish got past the pump screens that were supposed to keep them out.

They are entering into a lease agreement with Preservation Parks of Delaware County, to develop a 70-acre park at the reservoir. It's going to have some kind of pond or water feature, and fishing will be allowed there but not in the main reservoir. I looked around the PP website but I can't find anything about this. Some of the meeting minutes mention Ottowa Creek, which is close to the reservoir. There's mention of land acquisition, but then the minutes say they went into "executive session" to discuss it, so there are no details in the minutes.

The reason for no fishing or boating on the reservoir is they're worried about damage to the clay/plastic liner. They said the site had less clay than they'd hoped, so there's only 18 inches of clay over the plastic.

BTW they're considering building a pipe to send water from the reservoir to the top of Oshay.

A few Hoover notes - they said the conditions are similar to last year when they had algae that made the Columbus water smell and taste bad. But they have some new water treatment processes that should prevent that from happening again. They said some people can detect the odor/flavor in a dilution of one part per trillion. They're watching the water level and they might activate the pump station to draw water from Alum, for the first time in five years.

The raw water line ("Hoover to Hap") is not a done deal after all, I thought it was. They want it because they're worried about any kind of major spill on any transportation route that drains to Big Walnut, mainly 270, because they'd have to shut down the Hap Cremean water plant which provides water for more than half of Columbus. But there are concerns that this might take too much flow from Big Walnut - currently the water plant draws all of its water from BW surface flow.

What else ... I became part of the Water Trails group, so I'll have things to report on those as they develop. Briefly, they're developing canoe/kayak access points on the Scioto, Olentangy, Big Walnut, and Alum. They're hoping to gain state designation of water trails. I'll put that information in another thread.


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## Basshunter122 (May 6, 2013)

Thanks for the great info!! 


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## SneakinCreekin (Aug 22, 2014)

This was a great read. Thank you. I thought I was on the dispatch website for a second and caught myself saying this article is too good to be in the dispatch. 

Great job and please share more!


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## ShoreFshrman (Sep 25, 2014)

I'll admit I don't have a clue about how reservoirs are built but I can't understand what fishing has to do with the liner of the reservoir. I can sort of understand the thing about boats with motors but what about canoes/kayaks/row boats??

IMHO, if they wanted a reservoir that people shouldn't enjoy then they should have built a huge square with a 12ft fence around it without a jogging trail around it.

BTW, FOSR, thanks for the info and taking the time to type all of that, much appreciate you keeping us informed.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Do you know what kind of fish have been stocked in marysville?


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

fishintechnician said:


> Do you know what kind of fish have been stocked in marysville?


No, but I might be able to find out.


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## FlashGordon (Mar 19, 2014)

Great info!

Thanks for the report.


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## kwizzle (Apr 7, 2012)

Thank you, always enjoy the information you share.


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## Bucks4life (Jul 30, 2014)

Great info! Thanks for the update.

Interesting about the Hoover/Hap Creamen Plant, I had no idea.


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

Strange, I'm at Kenny/McCoy, not that far from the water plant on Dublin Rd., but my water comes from the Cremean plant on the other side of town.


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## Bucks4life (Jul 30, 2014)

FOSR said:


> Strange, I'm at Kenny/McCoy, not that far from the water plant on Dublin Rd., but my water comes from the Cremean plant on the other side of town.


I used to live just East of the plant for years and had no idea it was even there. I thought it was all part of the refuse part up front. Not knowing it serves a huge chunk of Columbus!


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## OrangeMilk (Oct 13, 2012)

FOSR RULES!!!

Great read, thank you for the info.


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## kwizzle (Apr 7, 2012)

Fosr, I was wondering about the blue green algae in Hoover water. Is this coming from water in the creek south of the dam, or is it in the resevior itself? Also should I be concerned with keeping any fish to eat? Always considered Hoover one of the cleaner central ohio water ways am I wrong?


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

From what I understand, Hoover has algae but it doesn't happen to be the same kind that Toledo had. So it's just stinky, but not toxic. And, I'm guessing that the water in Hoover flows through and changes faster than the water in the western basin of Lake Erie.

Columbus has invested major $$ into enhanced treatment of the drinking water, using carbon filtering, but AFAIK that won't remove the toxins from the nasty algae. We're just lucky that we don't have it.

But the long-term weather forecast, the water temperatures in the reservoir, and the nutrient levels (mainly phosphorous) are lined up to repeat last year.


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## kwizzle (Apr 7, 2012)

Thanks for the info. I think it is funny to hear everyone mention phosphorous coming from agriculture, but no one mention the increased use of fert in residential areas. Every yard around Hoover is bright green all summer long, probably getting four treatments of fert a year.


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

Yep that's a valid point. That's one reason why the city doesn't want lawn grass right up to the water's edge.

I used to get lawn care here and they'd leave plenty of granules on the driveway and street.


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## fishintechnician (Jul 20, 2007)

Fist did you happen to get any info on what all was stocked in marysville, and when it will be open to fish? Also do you know if it will be city controlled or state? Reason for asking is it'd be great to ice fish if state ran, slim chances if city


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

I don't know any of those details. I think the opening date for fishing isn't set because they're still trying to get the grant(s). Once they do, I suppose it'll take a while to build the fishing facilities. I would guess that Marysville would run it.


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## crjacob90 (Sep 27, 2013)

Where exactly are the columbus reservoirs, i can't seem to find em.


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

For Columbus, put this street address into google maps: 

9192 Taway Rd, Radnor, OH 43066. 

Then zoom back.

(The reservoir happens to sit on a dividing line between two satellite images; the northern edge is on an older image and that part of the reservoir image has no water in it.)

Google doesn't give a street address for the Marysville reservoir, put these coordinates into google maps:

40.264146, -83.403379


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## ShoreFshrman (Sep 25, 2014)

FOSR said:


> For Columbus, put this street address into google maps:
> 
> 9192 Taway Rd, Radnor, OH 43066.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info, when you forst talked about these I thought the one for the street address you gave where instead the two "lakes" just north of Prospect,OH and just west of the Scioto. Since google maps hasn't updated these yet, I didn't think to look at the sat. images 

Good stuff, thanks for posting


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## ron92 (Jan 29, 2009)

On May 14, 2014 78000 yellow perch fingerlings were added with 500 more each year. In 2015 catfish will be added. They will not open it up for fishing for a couple of years to give the perch time to grow. The ODNR is doing the stocking and will run the show. There will be a 10 HP limit on the reservoir. The state will foot the cost of the fish and improvements for docks and ramps so the city will open it up to the public.


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## Basshunter122 (May 6, 2013)

ron92 said:


> On May 14, 2014 78000 yellow perch fingerlings were added with 500 more each year. In 2015 catfish will be added. They will not open it up for fishing for a couple of years to give the perch time to grow. The ODNR is doing the stocking and will run the show. There will be a 10 HP limit on the reservoir. The state will foot the cost of the fish and improvements for docks and ramps so the city will open it up to the public.




That's really good to hear! I love that they're adding perch since they are kind of a rarity down here in central ohio! Also love that it's a 10hp lake to help keep boat traffic down



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