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After Toledo water debacle, lawmakers seek stricter monitoring

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: October 22, 2014

State Reps. Mike Sheehy, D-Oregon, and John Patterson, D-Jefferson, have partnered to sponsor a bill that would establish requirements and procedures pertaining to levels of microcystin in the state’s public water systems.

“After over 400,000 Northwest Ohioans were forced to go without water in August, it became clear that we need a better, more established system for monitoring our public water systems,” Sheehy said.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 625, states that the director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency must carve out rules to establish a level of microcystin that constitutes a threat to the health of individuals using the water based on best-available practices.

The EPA director also would have to create requirements governing the testing of public water systems for microcystin.

“Access to clean water is a right that all Ohioans should have,” Patterson said.

“The legislature has been moving slower than we’d hoped when it comes to limiting the proliferation of harmful algal blooms. In the meantime, we must ensure that the public is informed as quickly as possible should their drinking water be compromised again.”

HB 625 would require a public water system’s operator to immediately notify the local board of health should water within the system contain a certain level of microcystin.

According to the bill, the board’s director would then take steps to alert the general public of the impacted area.

“Although this legislation is a safeguard for monitoring microcystin in public water systems, rather than preventing it from entering the water, it is a much-needed first step,” Sheehy said.

HB 625 is co-sponsored by Democratic Reps. Nickie Antonio, Armond Budish, Teresa Fedor, Mike Foley, Robert Hagan, Dan Ramos and Chris Redfern.

The bill is awaiting a committee assignment.

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