OHIO Report: Waste-treatment plants are heaviest polluters

Critics say the plants would face stricter penalties if they were businesses.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- City and county sewage-treatment facilities pollute Ohio waterways more than steel mills, auto plants and other heavy industries, The Columbus Dispatch reported Sunday.
The plants, owned by local governments, spill millions of gallons of raw and partially treated human and industrial waste into rivers and lakes, according to the newspaper's review of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency records.
The EPA requires 3,200 sewage-treatment facilities, factories and other large industrial operations statewide to monitor and limit pollution. Of the 62 operations deemed to be in "significant noncompliance," 48 were government waste-treatment plants, according to an EPA quarterly report for July through September 2003.
Environmentalists say the plants would face stricter enforcement if they were businesses rather than government operations.
Penalizing treatment plants is "like the government fining itself," said Erin Bowser, the Ohio director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
Defends enforcement
Ohio EPA officials said enforcement has been stepped up in recent years, including lawsuits against Columbus and other cities by environmental groups.
"There are agencies being very aggressive with communities to address problems when they occur," said Paul Novak, the state EPA's manager of waste-facility permits. "Some of these problems can't be corrected overnight."
Federal grants and loans that paid for plant improvements have helped 64 percent of the state's rivers meet federal aquatic life standards, up from about 25 percent years ago, Novak said.
"It's really one of the great success stories of federal funding programs," he said. "We saw significant improvements."
However, President Bush's proposed budget, announced last week, could slow repairs by cutting money for the low-interest federal loan program that provides the primary funding for sewer improvements.
Older cities with the most problems tend to be the least able to afford the fixes, Novak said.
Ohio facilities have received $2.5 billion in low-interest loans since 1989, and Columbus has received $194 million in the past four months alone.
'Nonstop' expansion
"Pretty much the expansion projects are nonstop," said Laura Young Mohr, spokeswoman for the city's Division of Sewerage and Drainage. "There are always new environmental mandates. Beyond that, Columbus continues to grow. We try to stay ahead of the curve."
A report by the Columbus sewer department, due to the state EPA by Sunday, will be the first annual analysis since the city began tracking spills in detail as part of a $500,000 settlement with the state in August 2002 for repeated sewer-system backups.
The U.S. EPA delayed approval last summer of Columbus' long-term sewer plan, noting the city planned to add 300,000 customers to the system in 20 years without increasing the capacity of its two treatment plants. The EPA later approved a revised plan.
About the same time Columbus agreed to the $500,000 EPA penalty, Toledo settled an 11-year dispute for the same amount. Akron committed $377 million to improvements and Cincinnati, in a federal settlement approved in December, agreed to $1 billion in upgrades over the next two decades.