Groups, state EPA settle suit over water

COLUMBUS (AP) -- Conservation groups and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have settled a lawsuit alleging the government failed to clean up Ohio watersheds.
The National Wildlife Federation, the League of Ohio Sportsmen and the Ohio Environmental Council had claimed the Ohio EPA did not develop plans to clean up polluted watersheds in the state.
The state has agreed to develop plans for 50 watersheds, including the Grand River watershed in northeastern Ohio, by Sept. 30, 2007, with the goal of making them safe for fishing and swimming, the conservation groups said in a prepared statement.
"It's a vast improvement of the situation that existed before we brought the lawsuit," Neil Kagan, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.
The groups filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus in 2001. The settlement was filed with the court Aug. 19.
The state said the settlement reflects plans already in progress.
"It's basically memorializing a commitment we had made to the U.S. EPA that we were already working on," said Carol Hester, a spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.
Hester said it takes several years to develop and execute cleanup plans at polluted water sites.
"We've been working on the plans all along," Hester said. "We were working on them when the lawsuit was being filed."