Commissioner David Knight (left) studies the rain garden at Green Hills Retirement Community.

The education was part of the annual Logan Soil and Water Conservation District County Officials Tour, which made various stops in the southern portion of the county to highlight the district's conservation programs there. (Photographs and audio and video interviews included.)

Terry Mescher of ODNR explains how a holding pond for manure works to supply liquid manure fertilizer.

According to Education Coordinator Barb Kuck, rain gardens function by using a mixture of sand and soil in combination with porous plants to soak up runoff from spouts and parking lots and filter water into the ground at a normal rate.

They also prevent erosion and are relatively inexpensive to build, Kuck says.

Watch comments from Kuck.

The soil and water district decided to test the experimental rain garden project at the retirement community when Green Hills staff told them they were having a problem with water seeping into the main building and soaking the carpet.

So far the rain garden has worked the way it's supposed to, Kuck said.

The district is now looking into other locations throughout the county to build rain gardens.

Next up, the tour stopped at the Quincy water treatment plant and officials learned about a source water protection program aimed at the county's city and villages.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Geologist Allison Reed said right now only DeGraff, West Liberty and West Mansfield have endorsed protection plans in Logan County.

Source water protection focuses on educating residents about HAZMAT regulations and the proximity of water wells to sources of contamination in order to eliminate the pollution of a city or town's water supply, Reed said.

The biggest risks for water contamination in Logan County are agriculture, leaking underground storage tanks, garages, septic systems and transportation routes.

Reed added that train wrecks have always been a concern to EPA officials because Logan County has major railroad lines that run near village well fields.

However, infrastructure, agriculture and industry are important to society, and a balance must be struck to protect utility resources, Reed says.

Listen to comments from Reed.

For more information on source water protection, log on to www.epa.state.oh/ddagw/pdu/swap.html.

On a side note, the aquifer Quincy pulls ground water from runs from St. Marys to Circleville and predates the glacial period, said Pete Hodapp of Jones and Henry Engineering.

Commissioners Jack Reser and David Knight, Solid Waste Management District Coordinator Alan Hale, Wildlife Officer Kevin Russell and the other officials on tour next paid a visit to Champaign Landmark in DeGraff.

There they learned about grid sampling, a service Champaign Landmark offers that uses a Global Positioning System to test the soil of farmers' fields.

District Conservationist Bob Stoll called grid sampling a win-win situation because it allows farmers to control the amount of fertilizer applied to their fields and reduces runoff into ground water.

Finally, the tour visited the RE-AL Winner Farm on State Route 47 outside DeGraff, where Terry Mescher of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Soil and Water Conservation and landowners Alan and Renee Winner explained how the farm uses a holding pond to recycle manure.

A pump flushes water through the Winners' cattle barn and washes manure and liquid waste into an eight-feet-deep lagoon, where it's stored until the Winners are ready to apply the manure to their fields as fertilizer.

Although the pond can hold up to a year's worth of manure, farmers are encouraged to empty their ponds as often as possible, Mescher said.

Alan Winner said he plans to empty his pond within the next two or three weeks.