UPDATE | Ryan calls for better system to notify residents of lead issues

SEBRING — U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, while attending an announcement today about $404,000 in federal funding to help solve problems with lead in drinking water in Sebring, also commented on a similar problem in 2008 in Warren — another instance of the public not being informed of high lead levels quickly.

In Warren, city officials failed to send notices to the public by Nov. 29, 2008, to tell people that 12 residential water tests out of 90 had lead at unacceptable levels.

It resulted in the the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issuing a notice of violation to the city in January 2010.

Like in Sebring, the Ohio EPA was not able to correct the failure to notify for months — in Warren’s case apparently 16 months.

The city finally sent the notices in water bills in March 2010 in its annual Consumer Confidence Report, though most Warren water customers apparently never understood the meaning of the notification.

Several people who were Warren council members at the time, the utilities director at the time and then-Mayor Michael O’Brien all all told The Vindicator last week even they didn’t even know Warren’s water had high lead levels.

Ryan called for the resignation of OEPA director Craig Butler in January after he learned that the OEPA’s inaction regarding lead levels in Sebring delayed public notification for weeks or months.

Ryan said Sebring and Warren make it clear that the OEPA’s system of notifying public is broken and might only be corrected if the OEPA notified communities themselves instead of waiting for the community to do it.

“You’re the EPA. You have the scientific knowledge, the wherewithal. Why don’t you just do it?” the Congressman said.

Ryan said the repeated failure of local communities to notify when there’s a water problem apparently stems from fear of the the fallout that would occur.

Attempts since Thursday to reach someone in Butler’s office have been unsuccessful,