Storms responsible for suds on Wolf Creek

PHOTOS THANKS TO LISA MERRICK

Foam gathered in a mound on Wolf Creek April 2. Foam came from the north and backed up across state Route 261 on Barber Road.

By BOB MOREHEAD

BGNN senior staff writer

The question went out with photos on Facebook: “Who sudsed the creek?”

Turns out it was pretty much everybody, according to a Barberton official.

People passing Wolf Creek near the intersection of Barber and Wadsworth Roads April 2 were greeted by a massive mound of brownish foam on the stream and wondered what caused it.

Dan Miller, of the Barberton Utilities Department, said they don’t sample and test for such things but he had a good idea based on his years of experience.

“Our watershed is expansive,” Miller said. “There are more than 3,000 septic systems emptying into streams and ditches, you hope properly treated. When you have a massive rain event like we had, it washes all of those clear. We had 1.7 inches of rain one day and 1.2 inches the next.”

Miller said a foam pile like this, in his experience, is caused by surfactants getting churned up. Simply put, surfactants are the substances that make soap sudsy. Tens of thousands of residents upstream of us have washed their dishes, their clothes and their hair and rinsed the soap down the drain. It made its way rapidly to Wolf Creek, where fallen trees blocked it and the current churned it up, reviving the foam.

“The brown color is probably from the clay soil and minerals, predominately manganese,” Miller said.