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SEBRING | Former water official faces 3 charges
SEBRING
James Bates, former operator of the village of Sebring’s public water system, faces three criminal charges in connection with the village’s lead-in-drinking-water crisis.
In January, Sebring came under scrutiny after schools closed and a tap-water drinking advisory was issued after high lead levels were detected. The lead levels actually were detected in August 2015.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Craig Butler, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency director, said Wednesday that Bates has been charged with two misdemeanor counts of recklessly failing to provide timely notice of individual lead tap water results and one misdemeanor count of recklessly failing to provide timely systemwide public education.
“The state alleges that Bates failed to provide both types of notices within the required time frames, in violation of Ohio’s safe drinking water laws,” DeWine’s office said in a news release.
Before June, officials had 30 days to alert homeowners who had water containing elevated levels of lead and 60 days to make that information available to village residents.
Lead levels exceeding 15 parts per billion are considered unsafe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some test sites in Sebring tested upward of 36 ppb.
Gov. John Kasich signed House Bill 512 on June 9, requiring public water system representatives to notify residents within two days after finding lead in their water.
Village Manager Richard Giroux first placed Bates on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of a state investigation amid concerns about lead and copper in the water supply. Later, the OEPA issued emergency orders prohibiting Bates from operating any public water system in Ohio and revoked his license.
Bates was fired soon after.
Giroux said he is not taking any questions about Bates’ case and advised all questions be routed to the Ohio EPA or the AG’s office. “It’s about Mr. Bates, not me,” he said.
In a March story, The Vindicator wrote Bates had alerted Giroux in an email about the condition of Sebring’s water.
Giroux’s emailed response said, Is there “anything at the WTP [water treatment plant] that can be done to rectify this, or is it a waterline problem exclusively?”
When the contamination came to light in January, Giroux denied knowing about the water condition.
At another previous interview, he said he didn’t remember the email from Bates.
“I deal with hundreds of pieces of information every day,” Giroux said.
Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, said the charges are evidence of “serious mismanagement” which contributed to the village’s lead contamination crisis.
Other accountability fell with two OEPA officers who were terminated after the incident – Kenneth Baughman, environmental specialist 2, who earned $70,491 annually, and Julie Spangler, environmental supervisor, who earned $82,451 a year.
State Rep. John Boccieri of Poland, D-59th, was part of the efforts to amend HB 512, to have stricter policies regarding alerts about drinking water.
In a news release, Boccieri said the state should share accountability for public safety in regard to lead in drinking water.
“If state law applied the same civil and criminal penalties to these workers who share responsibility to notify the public during a public health crisis, I believe a more timely notification would have occurred,” he said.
Kate Hanson, an attorney general’s spokeswoman, said she was not able to discuss any aspects of Bates’ case.