MCARTHUR, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz officially designated Raccoon Creek as Ohio’s newest state scenic river during a recent ceremony at Lake Hope State Park.
Raccoon Creek is now the 16th state scenic river in Ohio and the first in the state’s southeastern region, flowing for more than 100 miles through parts of Vinton, Meigs and Gallia counties.
For many years, Raccoon Creek was considered by many to be “unrecoverable” due to acid mine drainage and sedimentation throughout the watershed caused by more than 70 years of coal mining. In the 1970s, area residents pushed for a coordinated effort to restore the waterway. Since then, ODNR has completed 20 acid mine drainage treatment projects that have reduced total drainage by more than 8,500 pounds per day. These projects include the removal of mine waste piles and the creation of limestone channels, leach beds and wetlands.
At the designation ceremony, DeWine and Mertz signed a journal entry to designate 111.9 river miles of Raccoon Creek as a state scenic river. These river miles meet or exceed the qualifications needed to join Ohio’s scenic river system, including requirements that the waterway be 75% free-flowing and not impacted by nearby commercial development. About one-third of Raccoon Creek also meets or exceeds the Ohio EPA’s exceptional warm water aquatic life use designation.
With the new state scenic river designation of Raccoon Creek, approximately 942 river miles are now protected in the state scenic rivers system. Three waterways — the Big and Little Darby creeks, Little Beaver Creek and Little Miami — are also designated as national scenic rivers.
