State Rep. Boccieri has more questions for OEPA on Sebring water

SEBRING — State Rep. John Boccieri said he has questions for Ohio Environmental Protection Agency officials regarding when they claim they first learned of test results that showed high lead levels in Sebring’s water.

Boccieri of Poland, D-59th, said today he recently received documentation from the state’s water-testing vendor, Ream & Haagar Environmental Lab of Dover, that confirms the vendor first notified the EPA in August of test results showing elevated lead levels in Sebring’s water.

“I remain concerned that the agency is still not identifying exactly when it received evidence of lead in Sebring’s water,” Boccieri wrote in a letter to EPA Director Craig Butler. “I am certain that if similar test results came to the OEPA identifying contaminated water in the governor’s mansion, the Statehouse or an affluent suburb of Columbus, OEPA’s notification procedures would have been far better executed. However, the small rural community of Sebring, Ohio, seems to have been forgotten between August 2015 and January 2016.”