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Bill would create task force to study drinking water access
TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: June 18, 2013
In today’s world full of technological advances, Sen. Cliff Hite said no Ohioan should be without access to “the most basic and vital resource required for survival.”
“Representing 11 rural counties, I have seen first-hand numerous cases where residents simply do not have access to potable drinking water,” he said. “I have witnessed situations where people have resorted to dire straits simply to provide their families with water many of us would never consider consuming.”
Hite, R-Findlay, and Sen. Lou Gentile, D-Steubenville, are sponsoring a measure, Senate Bill 37, that would create the Water Access To Every Residence Task Force and require the 14-member coalition to identify residential communities and geographic areas of Ohio in which potable drinking water is not readily accessible.
The task force would have to develop strategies for providing access to potable drinking water, including ideas for financing drinking water projects.
“Over 11 million people each day use tap water supplied by Ohio’s public water systems,” Gentile said. “Many more use or benefit from Ohio’s ground water resources. During these tough economic times, we all know how difficult it has become for local governments to finance new and existing water line projects.”
In many rural areas, Gentile said local leaders do not have the resources or the capacity to seek financial assistance from federal or state programs.
“This 14-member task force will serve as a valuable resource for identifying funding options for local governments who struggle to identify the financial assistance programs that are available to them,” he said, adding that water quality issues exist in both rural and urban areas.
“In my district, for example, Belmont County’s Buckeye Reclamation Landfill site is just southeast of St. Clairsville in Neffs, Ohio. Neffs is a total area of four square miles with a population just over 1,000.”
Gentile said the area was once mined for coal and served as a disposal area for mine waste, sanitary waste and hazardous waste in the late 1970’s.
“The surface water quality in Kings Run Stream nearby was in need of vast improvement and proposed a hazard to the resident’s groundwater,” he said. “Without the help of the U.S. EPA and the Ohio EPA in the fall of 2011, this area of my district may not have ever seen an improvement in surface water quality in Kings Run Stream,” he said.
If SB 37 is signed into law, the task force would have to submit its findings to the General Assembly within one year of the bill’s effective date.
Upon submission of the report, the task force would cease to exist.
SB 37 has gained bipartisan support from Sens. Capri Cafaro, Eric Kearney, Gayle Manning, Tom Sawyer, Joe Schiavoni, Shirley Smith and Nina Turner.
The bill is before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee.
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