Ohio River

The Ohio River is still out of its banks, and according to the National Weather Service, still climbing. The river is now expected to hit 57 feet at Cincinnati, five feet above flood stage, and half a foot higher than predicted Wednesday.

A coalition has developed a blueprint for improving the Ohio River and its tributaries. The Ohio River Basin Alliance (ORBA) has identified six goals, including clean water, healthy ecosystems, transportation and commerce, education, flood risk management and recreation. 

You can listen to my interview with author Richard Haw here.  

I thought I knew a lot about the Roebling Suspension Bridge. Maybe you do, too.

I knew that construction was suspended during the Civil War…. It was the first bridge linking the North with the South when it opened in 1867… And it became the prototype for Roebling's Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

Communities along the Ohio River are taking part in a nearly annual tradition: preparing for flooding. As of Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service's Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service expected the Ohio River at Cincinnati to crest at 54.6 feet. Flood stage is 52 feet.

All Tim Guilfoile wants to do is fish. Before his retirement, he had two careers: one in business and one in water quality activism. Now, he serves as the director of marketing and communications for Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers. "We fly fish for bass, blue gill, striped bass and others. Not just trout. I fish on the Ohio River."

Will he eat the fish he catches in the Ohio River?

"Oh God, no!" he said.

Tommy Joyce is no cinephile. The last movie he saw in a theater was the remake of True Grit nearly a decade ago. "I'd rather watch squirrels run in the woods" than sit through most of what appears on the big screen, he said.

The Ludlow-Bromley Yacht Club appears to be a total loss after a barge drifted toward it and ultimately crashed into it early Wednesday morning.

Updated: Monday, 1:12 p.m.

On Friday, a green-ish scum began forming in places along the banks of the Ohio River. At the time, the executive director of the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) wasn't concerned, but that changed this weekend. 

Two paddlewheel boats from the Louisville area are coming to Cincinnati for the first riverboat race in the area in more than 13 years. The American Duchess and the American Queen face the Belle of Cincinnati at 3 p.m. Monday at the Purple People Bridge.

States in the Ohio River basin will be able to choose whether or not to follow pollution control standards set by the Ohio River Water Sanitation Commission. ORSANCO's board of directors approved the change at a meeting in Covington Thursday morning.

The directors of the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission are meeting in Covington this week to plan for the future. The board has been considering a change to water quality standards for more than a year, and could make a decision at Thursday's meeting.

One of the stages at Bunbury is moving. The CVG stage is normally set up at the bottom of the Serpentine Wall, but with the Ohio River expected to rise four feet by Sunday, it's being relocated to higher ground.

The commission that sets standards for pollution in the Ohio River has been considering dropping those standards, but will accept more public comment before making a decision. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) has two webinars and three public hearings scheduled.

The Ohio River won't crest as high or as late as first thought. The National Weather Service now expects the highpoint to be 55.5 feet in Cincinnati at about 7 p.m. Tuesday. Hamilton County Emergency Management Director Nick Crossley says earlier predictions were above 56 feet.