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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #160815
Title: MAINTENANCE OF MULTI-LANDOWNER DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN OHIO

Author
item ATHERTON, B - USDA/NRCS
item BROWN, L - THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
item Fausey, Norman
item HITZHUSEN, F - THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: ASAE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/2004
Publication Date: 3/23/2004
Citation: ATHERTON, B.C., BROWN, L.C., FAUSEY, N.R., HITZHUSEN, F.J. MAINTENANCE OF MULTI-LANDOWNER DRAINAGE IMPROVEMENTS IN OHIO. ASAE ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MEETING. 2004. P. 360-366.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Much of Ohio was uninhabitable by humans until it was drained during the nineteenth century. Settlement lagged in many areas because of wetness and the presence of disease. As the population increased, landowners cooperated to construct mutually beneficial drainage improvements to convert land with wetness problems to productive cropland. By 1884, it was estimated that 32,000 km of public ditches benefiting over 4.45 million hectares of land had been constructed. However, lack of organized maintenance often resulted in cycles of declining benefits followed by reconstruction for many of these drainage improvements. Since 1957, many Ohio counties have established organized maintenance programs for drainage improvements constructed under the relevant legal authority. As part of the creation of Ohio's Agricultural Water Management Guide, a study was undertaken to inventory the number and types of drainage improvements under maintenance, the area benefited by these projects, and the cost of maintenance for the years 1994-1996. Forty-seven counties of 50 counties surveyed reported organized ditch maintenance programs for 1996. Over 3359 individual open ditches, subsurface drainage mains, and grassed waterways are maintained by these programs, and over 1.25 million ha of land is estimated to be benefited. Over $2.8 million was spent on maintenance for these projects in 1996. The average annual cost for maintenance of a selected group of open ditches with detailed records was less than $2.00 per hectare of benefited land.