Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog October 2009

A while back I had mentioned a nursery in Madison, Ohio called Roemer Nursery that has water trouble related to an extraordinary rise in salt levels in one of their main irrigation ponds.

Anyone that knows anything about the nursery business realizes that not just water but good quality water is the most important component of growing nursery stock especially container-grown stock like Roemer.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has made it public that Roemer Nursery is suing Wal-Mart for five million dollars as Gied Stroombeek, the owner, believes that the salt troubles with his pond are due to Wal-Mart’s salt applications to its parking lot collecting in a drainage basin with the resultant salty water filtering its way to Roemer’s pond causing the high salt level.

Mr. Stroombeek founded his nursery on Green Road which is about ¾ of a mile north of US Route 20 in 1959.

In conversation a few years ago, Mr. Stroombeek told me that the water table filling his wells and ponds does not come from Lake Erie but from inland aquifers coming from the North Ridge or Route 20.

Lisa Ungers, who has an option to buy the nursery, has said that they have tried to work with Wal-Mart for two years to correct the problem but Wal-Mart has refused based on the fact that Roemer Nursery must prove that the store (Wal-Mart) is the cause.

At Dayton Nursery we have a similar situation as the always-flowing Van Hyning Run that cuts through the nursery property is unfit for irrigation due to high salts and very high colifom bacteria counts.

Van Hyning Run has a short course of only a few miles as its source is Loyal Oak Lake Park and its end at Wolf Creek which in turn empties into the Tuscarawas River in Barberton.

Even with this short run failing septic tanks and road sides laden with salt diminish the water quality in a kind of no-point, multi-point source of pollution.

Salt contamination of our precious water sources has not yet been addressed and it remains to be seen how the case Roemer Nursery vs. Wal-Mart as salt used as a de-icer is not currently regulated by the EPA.

Mr. Stroombeek is somewhat “up in years” and may not live to see the outcome of this case; however, he did tell me in conversation that he has retained an attorney that will take the process as far as it will go. This case could have very wide implications that go well beyond Roemer Nursery and Wal-Mart as EPA may very well regulate salt use because of the damage caused to aquifers and streams.

Stay tuned,
Tom