member spotlight
Monitoring Environmental Conditions
in The Buckeye State
By Nancy Maddox, MPH, writer
When you think of the state of Ohio, what
comes to mind? Perhaps Dayton’s Wright
Patterson Air Force Base, the famed
Center of Science and Industry (COSI) in
Columbus or the Oberlin Conservatory of
Music, the nation’s oldest continuously
operating conservatory.
For Nik Dzamov, chief of the Ohio
Environmental Protection Agency
(OH EPA) Division of Environmental
Services (DES), one of the state’s defining
characteristics is...water. Of course, the
state was named after the Ohio River,
which flows along its southern border and
contributes more water to the Mississippi
River than any other tributary. Yet, the
state has over 100 additional rivers—
including the Cuyahoga, Sandusky, Miami
and Maumee—and roughly 2,200 lakes
with a surface area of five acres or more.
If you count smaller lakes and ponds, the
number rises to 50,000 bodies of water
covering an area of roughly 200,000 acres.
These surface waters—together with a
couple hundred major aquifers—comprise
the source water for Ohio’s 5,000 or so
public drinking water systems. And it is
the job of DES to monitor the quality of
this water on behalf of the state’s 11.6
million residents, the vast majority of
whom rely on public water utilities.
One of the most concerning threats to
water quality in The Buckeye State is
harmful algal blooms. Said Dzamov,
“We have a propensity for harmful algal
blooms in our surface water, especially
in Lake Erie. There are about 120 water
systems that use the state’s surface water
as their source water. Each one of these is
at risk for harmful algal blooms.”
In fact, Lake Erie’s western basin
experienced large harmful algal blooms in
2011, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017. In August
2014, toxic microcystin cyanobacteria
infiltrated the water intake pipes servicing
Toledo Water, forcing the shutdown of the
water treatment system for three days
straight—during which time the City of
Toledo issued a “Do not drink” advisory
affecting three counties.
Other water pollutants include chlorinated
solvents like tetrachloroethene, which
has been widely used for dry cleaning.
In addition to routine water monitoring,
DES tests ambient and indoor air (often at
dry cleaning facilities or structures built
on old dry cleaner sites) and is active in
emergency response.
Facility
DES is situated on the Ohio Department
of Agriculture (ODA) campus in
Reynoldsburg, about 20 miles east of the
centrally located state capital, Columbus.
The division takes up the second floor—
about 30,000 square feet—of a two-story,
red brick building shared with the Ohio
Department of Health (ODH) laboratory.
The ODA laboratory is nearby. Said
Dzamov, “We’re making an effort to
develop a state laboratory network; trying
to get Ohio state labs to work together in
an integrated fashion.”
Dzamov’s “pretty up-to-date” facility was
built in 2006.
Nik Dzamov during his time working on the Comprehensive
Everglades Restoration Plan. Photo: Ohio EPA
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LAB MATTERS Spring 2018
Chief
Dzamov’s first acquaintance with OH
EPA was as an intern for the agency
while attending Ohio State University.
After earning a graduate degree in
biological sciences, also from Ohio
State, he worked full time for OH EPA
as a laboratory scientist and laboratory
certification officer. In 2004, Dzamov
relocated to Florida, where he worked
on an Everglades restoration plan for the
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection and the South Florida Water
Management District. “I took the job more
because I would be in the Everglades a
lot on an air boat than because of the
pay,” said Dzamov. From there, he moved
his family to Denver, Colorado, to work
for the City of Englewood Environmental
Resources Department, Industrial
Pretreatment Section. After about a year
in that position, Dzamov returned to
Ohio to work for a private environmental
management company specializing in
hazardous waste control. In 2010, he said,
“I had an opportunity to come back to OH
EPA, and I made the move.”
Staff
DES has 25 full time, permanent
employees—mostly chemists and
biologists—and three part time, temporary
employees. During summer months, it
runs an internship program with four to
five college interns.
Revenue
The division’s $3.8 million annual budget
comes from solid waste disposal fees and
laboratory service fees.
Testing
The division conducts about 150,000
tests/year on about 15,000 environmental
samples/year. Its single highest-volume
service is surface water testing for OH EPA
Division of Surface Water.
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