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State lawmakers raise questions about Ohio EPA handling of Sebring water issue
Sebring Water
Document
A letter to Craig Butler, Director at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency about the delayed response to signs of elevated lead levels.
SEBRING
State lawmakers are calling into question the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s handling of a finding that drinking water from the Sebring village distribution system contained elevated lead and copper levels.
That finding led the Sebring school district to cancel classes Friday. The village issued an advisory to the system’s 8,100 customers in Sebring, Beloit and Maple Ridge warning that pregnant women and children should not drink tap water from the system due to a finding that water from seven homes had lead levels of 21 parts per billion, which exceeds the federal- action level of 15 ppb.
Public notification appears to have been spurred by issuance of citations by the Ohio EPA on Thursday, according to state lawmakers.
State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, said he got pulled into a conference call about 10:15 p.m. Thursday, which he thought to be odd, especially when he learned more about the time line of events.
“The testing was done in the summer; the results came back in the fall. It’s January,” he said. “Why was yesterday the day?”
He and state Rep. John Boccieri of Poland, D-59th, on Friday sent a letter to Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler asking for clarification.
“We are writing to address the delayed response to signs of elevated lead levels in Sebring and Beloit’s drinking water, as described to us in a call with Ohio EPA at 10:15 p.m. on January 21, 2016,” the letter reads. “Although the tests revealing lead contamination were conducted in August and September of 2015, this information was just recently made public and brought to our attention. It is therefore possible that residents in the affected areas have unknowingly been drinking water that poses threats to their health.”
Schiavoni and Boccieri have asked the Ohio EPA to confirm a time line of events detailed in the letter. That time line indicates the Ohio EPA knew in October that lead levels exceeded “government-regulated action levels.” The letter also alleges that, under state law, the water system should have notified tested households and educated the public no later than Dec. 10, 2015.
Lawmakers also have asked the Ohio EPA to answer a number of additional questions, such as the chain of events that led the agency to issue three citations to the water system Thursday.
Schiavoni said it seemed “out of the blue” to him, since the village seemingly was doing what the Ohio EPA asked of it.
The letter ends with a call to action “to remedy this situation for the at-risk residents of Sebring and Beloit.”
“I’m not trying to induce panic. I’m not trying to point fingers. I just want to understand this,” Schiavoni said Friday. “I want to be able to answer the question from constituents, ‘Did the state know about these findings, and why didn’t they tell us?’”
Village officials expect to have results from additional water tests ready for release Monday, city Manager Richard Giroux said.
He said it appears the issue is due to copper and lead leaching into drinking water from older residential waterlines. Water from the treatment plant might have been too acidic.
“It’s very important for the public to understand that there is no lead and there is no copper coming from the plant or in the main distribution lines,” Giroux said.
Depending on Monday’s results, he believes the solution will be to inject chemicals into the water supply to raise the pH-level. The village recently spent $5 million to upgrade its water plant.
“Everything we’ve done so far is precautionary to get the word out in case there is an issue,” he said. “We feel that if there’s an issue, it’s a very temporary issue and it’s already in the process of being corrected.”
He said the village is working closely with the Ohio EPA to resolve the issue.
The Mahoning County District Board of Health urges children, infants and pregnant women – who are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead exposure – to use bottled water for cooking, drinking and baby-formula preparation.
Parents and pregnant women are advised to contact their family doctor, pediatrician, OB/GYN or other health care provider for information about testing and health effects of lead exposure.
Other customers of the water-distribution system are advised to run water for 30 seconds to two minutes, until it is noticeably colder, before using it.
Additional steps the county health board recommends to reduce lead exposure include:
Do not cook with or drink water from the hot water tap.
Do not boil water to remove lead. Boiling will not reduce lead levels.
Periodically remove the strainers from faucets and flush by running water for 3 to 5 minutes to remove any loose lead solder or debris that has accumulated over time.
Flush faucets anytime the water in the faucet has gone unused for more than six hours.
To conserve water, fill a couple of bottles for drinking water after flushing the faucet, and wherever possible use the first flush to wash dishes or water the plants.
Purchase or lease a home-treatment device.
The Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency has set up a water-distribution center at the Sebring Community Center at 305 W. Texas Ave. The state EMA has provided 150 pallets of bottled water to the community. The center will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., today through Friday.
A free blood lead-screening clinic also is scheduled for area residents under age 6 and pregnant or breast-feeding women who use the water system. The clinic will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at B.L. Miller Elementary at 506 W. Virginia Ave.
Customers who wish to have their drinking water tested may contact the health board’s laboratory at 330-270-2841 or 1-800-873-MCHD (6243).
The issue comes to light as national attention is on a water crisis in Flint, Mich. High levels of lead were found in the drinking water there, the danger of which was downplayed by government officials.