Update ineffective water policies in Ohio and US

Controversies over foul water that have risen to the surface this year in Sebring, Warren, Flint, Mich., and other communities have produced understandable panic, fear-inducing health threats and legitimate anxieties. Collectively, however, the panic, fear and anxiety have coalesced to produce one important positive outcome. They have exposed clear deficiencies in state and federal policies to guarantee safe drinking water for all U.S. citizens and have catalyzed responsible calls for reform.

The latest and most comprehensive proposal to cure what ails public policy on dirty water has its source in the office of Gov. John Kasich. Last week, Kasich and representatives of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a multi-pronged set of proposals attached to this spring’s Mid-Biennium Review bill that respond to the shortcomings revealed in Sebring and that offer concrete and promising corrective actions.

Kasich and the Ohio EPA seek to complete water-quality tests more quickly to provide faster high-lead alerts to communities and to take other steps to eliminate or reduce lead dangers. Residents of Sebring and to a lesser extent Warren know all too well the dangerous fallout of delayed or incomplete notification.

Sebring, the village that serves 8,000 water customers in western Mahoning County, has become the poster boy of the failure of both local and state governments to warn residents about unsafe drinking water in a timely fashion.

Although tests last summer showed that the water in Sebring contained high levels of lead, the local water system did not tell customers until the Ohio EPA forced it to do so in January. In Warren, some residents largely were kept in the dark in 2008 and 2009 about lead levels that had reached the same unhealthy standards as those today in Sebring.

Statewide, 10 of 14 water systems that had recent advisories for lead contamination in effect had not properly notified people that their drinking water was tainted, a review of OEPA records by the Columbus Dispatch showed last week.

BEST STATEWIDE FIX

Clearly, the system of timely notification of fouled drinking water supplies is badly broken. The Kasich administration’s proposal offers the best overall fix and deserves prompt approval as part of the MBR bill before the Ohio Legislature this spring. Among its attributes:

Public water systems in the state would be given only two days to issue press releases and other concrete public notices after having received test results that indicate lead levels above federal limits. The current state and federal policies allow for an overly generous 30-day delay.

Public water systems would be required to provide homeowners test results of lead levels in their water pipes within two business days, 28 days sooner than the current allowance.

The Ohio Water Development Authority will make funding available to help Ohio’s public schools identify sources of lead in drinking water from outdated, lead-based fixtures.

Assisting passage of these public-spirited reforms will be the Ohio EPA’s recognition of the failures of current policy and the agency’s ringing endorsement of the governor’s plan.

“We think it’s hugely significant in advancing how we are protecting public health” beyond current state standards and federal regulations that might not be updated for years, Ohio EPA Director Craig W. Butler said of the governor’s plan.

But that doesn’t mean that these common-sense provisions will be enacted without a fight. The governor and his staff had proposed some of the same ideas over the past two years only to be met with opposition from a Republican-controlled Legislature concerned about overregulation. We’d hope those reticent lawmakers now will recognize the failures of under-regulation visible in the crisis that unfolded in Sebring and exercise an attitude – and voting – adjustment.

Although the reforms in Kasich’s plan mirror some of those contained in legislation of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to affect the entire nation, the state legislation has far greater potential for speedy enactment and quicker implementation.

That, however, does not negate the absolute necessity for standard protections from lead-contaminated water nationwide. Brown’s legislation would accomplish that end and more.

Leaders of Ohio and the federal government must recognize that the purity of Americans’ drinking water must never be compromised or politicized. They can best show their allegiance to that principle by speedily enacting the critical reforms.