Big Darby Creek Case Study: A Profile of Watershed Threats and Protection in a Midwest Landscape

This report presents the results of a 1996 inquiry by an EPA team into the circumstances and events that affected the natural environment of Big Darby Creek and its supporting watershed, just west of Columbus, Ohio. In the inquiry, which covered the 25-30 year period ending in 1996, the team investigated both the threats to the aquatic values and resources of the watershed, and also the way in which watershed inhabitants, organizations and various levels of government responded to them. The report is presented in the following order. Part II introduces the reader to the natural and political setting of the Big Darby Creek watershed, and its special values. Part III is a short account of the events and circumstances threatening and protecting the watershed; it provides a historical framework for detailed discussion later in the report. Part IV elaborates the various kinds of threats the watershed experienced-the stresses affecting the environment and their human sources. Parts V and VI continue with detailed discussions of the information available to the team. Part V narrates and comments on the major clusers of threats and responses int he watershed: those relating to proposed damming o Big Darby Creek, to agricultural practices and to residential development. It identifies factors and groups involved in creating and responding to particular threats. Part VI then considers such factos and forces (e.g., scientific knowledge, organizations, availability of resources, local government) separately, and comments on their apparent significance in the Big Darby Creek setting. Part VII adds concluding observations to those already set out in earlier chapters of the report regarding threats, why and how they occurred, and what can be concluded about their containment.