Trumbull officials celebrate largest-ever Ohio EPA-funded water project

Staff report

WEST FARMINGTON

The director of of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency participated in a celebration Thursday in this tiny village because the most highly funded water project of its kind is coming here in the next two years.

OEPA Director Craig Butler said the $6 million OEPA grant that will pay for nearly half of the $12.5 million project means it is getting the highest level of OEPA funding in the agency’s history.

And adding in that the other $6.5 million for the project will come from a zero-percent OEPA loan makes it the biggest project funded by OEPA dollars in the agency’s history, said Jerry Rouch, assistant chief for the OEPA’s division of environmental and financial assistance.

Butler said the project, dubbed the Blueprint For Prosperity by county officials, was ranked No. 1 on the OEPA’s drinking-water funding list last month out of 4,800 public water systems in Ohio because of the potential that the West Farmington water-treatment plant could become unable to provide safe water.

“We’re very concerned. The system could fail,” Butler said, calling the plant “old, antiquated and doesn’t work very well.” When the new water lines are working, the plant will be eliminated.

For West Farmington Mayor Shirley McIntosh, the work by county and state officials to bring the waterline north from Braceville Township, through Southinton and into her village means her biggest headache as mayor soon will be a distant memory.

McIntosh, who’s been mayor 18 months, said the water being produced is safe, but it’s constantly being monitored by the OEPA, and it takes a lot of work to correctly operate the plant.

Other communities that will benefit along the water line are Braceville, Southington and a small part of Champion.

The project will be the biggest one the county has built in at least 17 years and will include 123,350 feet of waterline along Braceville-Robinson Road in Braceville Township, from state Route 5 to Helsey-Fusselman Road, west to state Route 534 and north along 534 to West Farmington.

It also takes in a large part of Southington, including a section of U.S. Route 422. It will serve 750 customers. Construction is estimated to begin in about a year and be completed in June 2018.