Sebring water crisis helped form state policy, OEPA director says

HOWLAND

The 2016 Ohio legislation that expedited public notifications about lead-contaminated drinking water, and proposed budget cuts at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were among topics covered when Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler visited Howland Thursday.

Butler said the Ohio legislation, House Bill 512, prompted by the Flint, Mich., lead crisis and the Sebring water crisis, put Ohio “at the forefront in the entire country in how we implement the Safe Drinking Water Act relative to lead in drinking water.”

In fact, Butler said the OEPA has “also championed at the national level in working with the federal EPA in following our lead in how we do this.”

When an Ohio public water system exceeds the federal rules for lead in the drinking water, water systems now have two days to notify its customers instead of 30.

It “tightens the time frame well beyond federal rules” Butler said.

Butler spoke at Leo’s Ristorante at a lunchon sponsored by the Youngstown-Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Council.

Read more of his remarks in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.