Reuse of Ohio River Water

Abstract

This article reports the results of an investigation on the fact that the total flow of the Ohio River has been reused from four to as many as sixteen or seventeen times when the river passes Cincinnati. The data was based on an evaluation of water use and stream flow by the U.S. Geological Survey and supplemented with inventory records from the member states of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia). Study conclusions indicated that: water withdrawn for municipal and industrial process use in the Ohio River drainage district (upstream from the confluence of the Ohio with the Cumberland and the Tennessee) totals 1.47 bgd; cooling water service for industrial and power plant installation totals 25.875 bgd; under drought flow conditions, less than one‐sixth of the stream flow in the Ohio River consists of water previously withdrawn for municipal or industrial process use, which is treated to reduce contamination prior to its return to the river; and, total municipal and industrial withdrawals would have to increase by 500 per cent before the point would be reached at which additional withdrawals would consist of once‐used water.