COLUMBUS – State environmental officials say recent water samples from homes in a northeast Ohio village have tested below the federally allowable level for lead.
Meanwhile, Ohio’s senior senator says he will introduce legislation aimed at preventing situations like the ones in Sebring and Flint, Mich., where residents do learn for weeks or months about contaminated drinking water.
The operators of the small water system serving the village of Sebring in Mahoning County came under fire by the state for not notifying the public for months that unsafe levels of lead had been found in some homes last summer.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that 54 samples collected from 53 homes in the village whose residents requested testing all showed lead levels in the federally acceptable range. The samples have been collected since Jan. 21.
State officials are still working with the village to adjust its water system chemistry to keep lead from leaching into the water from residential piping.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Wednesday that he plans to introduce a bill that would:
-Require the U.S. EPA to automatically alert the public if a state or local agency responsible for monitoring drinking water quality fails to do so in 15 days
-Requires communities to have a plan in place to fix a problem within six months, instead of the 18 months currently mandated, and requires them to have a plan in place to make sure residents have access to safe water during a crisis.
-Requires the EPA to make annual state water quality reports available online.