Boccieri wants House to subpoena EPA director about Sebring

YOUNGSTOWN

State Rep. John Boccieri is calling on the Ohio House of Representatives to subpoena Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler to

answer questions relating to the state’s “failure to protect the public for

some six months” after lead in drinking water was found in Sebring and Beloit.

Boccieri of Poland, D-59th, said he has repeatedly called on the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to provide the public with answers to basic questions surrounding the renewal of water permits and sluggish communication that “forced seniors, pregnant mothers and children to unknowingly drink water contaminated with copper and lead.”

“We have received no answer to our repeated questions about steps taken by the EPA, which shares a moral and legal obligation to notify the public when such a crisis evolves, to remedy this crisis.” Boccieri wrote in the letter to Speaker of the House Cliff Rosenberger.

Butler is Gov. John Kasich’s former policy advisor and was appointed by Kasich to the Ohio EPA, Boccieri noted in a news release.