The natural spring and its free flowing water located within Sycamore State Park on Wolfcreek Pike has been accessible to the public for decades. In recent weeks the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has removed public access to this valuable resource by installing a concrete block over the pipe where water runs freely from the spring and out of the retaining wall. They have also dug out the roof of the spring house located behind the retaining wall and then filled this in with dirt, completely cutting off all access to water. All of this was done WITHOUT public input and WITHOUT being transparent to the public about the plans for this spring and site moving forward.

ODNR staff have claimed water was tested and came back with total coliform, this is vague and does not warrant cutting off public access to the natural spring. There are many questions from the community about this testing and results. Research on total coliform shows this can be addressed safely without cutting off access to the spring water.

As a natural resource for the community this spring means many things to many people. There are so many uses for the natural flowing spring water, too many to list here. Many people have said this water "got them through" the power outage after the Memorial Day tornadoes ravaged our community.

As a community we would like to see public access to the spring water restored. We would also like to see the spring house and surrounding area restored and maintained. We would also like the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to be completely transparent about any water testing performed on this site. Moving forward we want the community to be a part of decisions regarding this natural resource.

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