Will the Ohio River become a 'national water trail'? Here's what it could mean for the area

Waterway advocates up and down the Ohio River, long battling its enduring public image as either a barge-packed marine highway or an oversized drainage ditch, are pursuing a new perception of the region's most defining natural resource.

The plan: Achieve an official, national designation for the Ohio River as one of the finest recreational assets the U.S. has to offer.

The effort is spearheaded by the Ohio River Way, a nonprofit group whose membership spans from Portsmouth, Ohio, to West Point, Kentucky. With support from members and federal partners, the organization is assembling an application for a "national water trail" designation spanning that same portion of the river, more than 270 miles.

Some popular perceptions of the river stem from its industrial and polluted past, and earlier this year it was deemed one of the country's most endangered waterways. But experts say it hasn't been cleaner in generations, and advocates say a prestigious national designation could help it further.

What could a new national water trail label mean for the Ohio River, the countless communities on its banks, and collective efforts to protect it?

What is a national water trail?

National water trails are "a distinctive national network of exemplary water trails," designated under the broader umbrella of the national recreation trails program.

"National Recreation Trail designation promotes some of our country's highest-caliber trails," according to the National Park Service, "with the intention of providing recreation access to rural and urban communities, economic development through tourism, and healthy recreation opportunities."

There are more than 1,000 national recreation trails around the country. But only 35 stretches of American waterway have received the national water trail designation, according to the online trail finder.

There are a couple of shorter water trails on the Ohio River — one designated near Parkersburg, West Virginia, and another near Pittsburgh, where the Ohio originates. Kentucky currently has one national water trail, the Green and Nolin Rivers Blueway, designated in 2021, according to the database.

The Ohio River Way organization is now working with federal partners, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the National Parks Service, to document the river's recreational opportunity — especially boat ramps and other public access points, and nearby campgrounds for those taking multi-day river expeditions.

The group's Ohio River Challenge, for example, takes paddlers 250 miles in 30-foot voyageur canoes from Portsmouth to Louisville over the course of 10 days.

An Army Corps study found 152 public access points, and identified a few gaps where there were six or more miles between them. The National Parks Service has also provided two staff experts to help explore options for the trail and prepare the application, including assessing the quality of those known access points.

David Wicks, a longtime waterway advocate in the Louisville area with Ohio River Way, said the group is planning to submit its application during the next annual cycle, in November 2024. That allows time for advocates and staff to ensure adequate river access and fill any gaps that might hurt the applicants' chances.

Why apply for the designation?

Applying for a national water trail designation is a "way to elevate the image of the river," said Frances Kern Mennone, who does financial consulting work for the Ohio River Way.

That could bring more people out for ecotourism and onto the water, for what Wicks hopes will grow into a reputable "adventure corridor." But advocates also hope a more prestigious label for the river will translate to a heightened sense of pride and preservation of the resource among its neighbors.

Wicks pointed to differences in perception between the Ohio River and regions like the Great Lakes, which tend to benefit from far more federal resources.

A national recreational designation and potential tourism boost would benefit not only major river cities along the trail like Louisville and Cincinnati, but also smaller communities where the health of the economy rests on a steady stream of visitors.

"Tourism is a big part of our economy," said Debra Cotterill, mayor of Maysville, Kentucky, a river town of about 9,000. "I think connecting the river, and making that a beautiful connection, and more opportunities for people, I think can make a big difference in our tourism economy."

Cotterill lives in the heart of Maysville, but still can't see the river from her street, because of the floodwall and earthen levee standing in between. The same is true in Portsmouth, a town of 18,000 at the confluence of the Ohio and the Scioto rivers, where the proposed trail would begin.

"The floodwall does its job, keeping us away from the river, keeping the river away from us," said Portsmouth Mayor Sean Dunne. "But it's important to still connect to the river ... You understand the river, then you start understanding, I think, the greatness of other parts of our physical environment here."

For many of the smallest communities lining the meandering Ohio, some with a population of only a few hundred, the river may be their most vital asset, especially in areas where industrial employers have left, Mennone said.

"Our hope is to educate the communities of the Ohio River," she said, "to use the Ohio River as an economic engine versus a liability."

Is the Ohio River safe for recreation?

"For 35 years, I have been butting my head against this perception that this river is filthy and toxic," said Jerry Schulte, a retired water quality expert formerly with the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission and one of the National Parks Service program staff helping with the application. "Having worked for an organization whose responsibility is to monitor the water quality and to regulate the water quality, I'm familiar with the data on this river system."

That data, he said, shows it's safe to recreate on the Ohio River with the proper precautions. Those include being aware of the presence of barge traffic, and monitoring conditions like rainfall around the Ohio River Valley, which can increase runoff and spike bacteria levels, making the waters unsafe for direct contact.

"Is it pristine? No, it is not," Schulte said. "You're not going to find any pristine water in a 204,000-square-mile watershed that's populated by 25 million people. It's not going to happen."

But as tributaries join the main stem of the Ohio River, its flow increases dramatically. Even in Louisville, far upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi, the river may be carrying upwards of 2 million gallons past the city every second, depending on the season and rainfall.

That amount of flow has a considerable diluting effect on the pollutants that do make it into the river. Wicks said the river meets recreational water quality standards "95% of the time," but advocated for making water monitoring data more accessible to the public, to make clear when it is unsafe.

In Cincinnati, swimming the Ohio is a tradition. The Bill Keating, Jr. Great Ohio River Swim has, for years, taken swimmers on "the largest open water swim across the Ohio River and back."

"In advance of the swim, the river is tested to ensure safety conditions for swimmers," the event's website says. "We evaluate river stage, velocity, presence of debris, algae, bacteria, and ambient weather."

"I think people would be surprised that it meets recreation standards," Wicks said. "People are swimming, and people are rowing, and people are paddling in the river more and more."

Connor Giffin is an environmental reporter for The Courier Journal and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. The program funds up to half of corps members’ salaries, but requires a portion also be raised through local community fundraising. To support local environmental reporting in Kentucky, tax-deductible donations can be made at courier-journal.com/RFA.

Learn more about RFA at reportforamerica.org. Reach Connor directly at cgiffin@gannett.com or on X @byconnorgiffin.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio River could become national water trail. What that could mean