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Basketball Preview
Miss Daisy See page 2 A supplement to The Press Newspapers December 4, 2017
Jacob Plantz Cover photo: Genoa junior guard by Russ Lytle) p ((Press file photo
Water authority talk begins
RESS February 12, 2018
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Farms are being overrun by people who don’t respect their land. Mark Reeves See page 4
Mercy to use “Super Scrubs” Mercy Health – St. Charles Hospital employees Austin Rohleder, implantation assistant, and Maryann Hurley, housekeeping coordinator, look over the new Vestex “super scrubs” at an employee fitting event Jan. 31 at the hospital. See Health Section, page 8. (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)
Lake Erie
Commissioners push for impairment By Kelly J. Kaczala News Editor kkaczala@presspublications.com Lucas County Commissioners recently expressed their support for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rejection last month of the Ohio EPA’s 2016 list of impaired waters in Ohio, which had failed to include the impairment designation of Ohio’s portion of the open waters of Western Lake Erie. “We’re gratified the U.S. EPA is enforcing the Clean Water Act and requiring the State of Ohio to follow the law,” said Commissioner Carol Contrada. “This is a significant move to protect drinking water and the health of Lake Erie. This will provide the accountability that 11 million citizens that are affected by the health of Lake Erie expect.” Commissioner Pet Gerken said that the Ohio EPA has received Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding since 2011 to monitor nutrient levels in the western basin. “Director Butler’s defense that they don’t have the data to make an impairment designation doesn’t add up – and now the Trump Administration agrees.” Reevaluated The U.S. EPA stated earlier this year
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all readily available information regarding phosphorus pollution that drives the growth of Harmful Algal Blooms in the open waters of western Lake Erie, or evaluating whether Harmful Algal Blooms are impairing those waters, as required by the Clean Water Act. The U.S. EPA approved of the state’s decision on May 19, 2017. In a Jan. 12 letter to Craig Butler, director of the Ohio EPA, David R. Ross, assistant administrator of the U.S. EPA, stated that the federal agency had “reevaluated” the state’s list and determined it was “not fully consistent with the requirements of the Clean Water Act and EPA’s regulations.”
it was wrong to approve a decision by the Ohio EPA to designate only limited shoreline areas of western Lake Erie as impaired. The Clean Water Act requires Ohio, every two years, to evaluate the water quality of all waters within its jurisdiction and submit a list to U.S. EPA that identifies each body of water that is impaired by pollution. The U.S. EPA then approves the list if it meets specific requirements, including the requirement to assemble and evaluate all existing and readily available water quality related data and information regarding water quality problems within a state’s jurisdiction. Last October, the Ohio EPA submitted its list to U.S. EPA without assembling
Political will “The health of Lake Erie continues to be a top priority of the Lucas County Commissioners,” said Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak. “We have a dynamic program to identify sources and amounts of nutrients flowing into Lake Erie. Our offer to partner with state and federal EPA officials to ensure that these sources are identified and mitigated is still on the table,” she added, referring to the Nutrient Source Inventory. In July, 2014, unsafe levels of a toxin, mycrocystin, shut down Toledo’s public drinking water for 400,000 customers in
I don’t know if it just lacks political will.
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Options under consideration to supply water for its approximately 6,500 customers in northern Wood County will be discussed by officials of the Northwestern Water and Sewer District at a public forum Feb. 15. The meeting will be held at the Quality Inn, 10612 Fremont Pike, Perrysburg, and start at 6:30 p.m. The district is currently exploring long-term options, said Theresa Pollick, a district spokesman, including joining the Toledo Area Water Authority or utilizing other water sources in Wood County. Officials from Toledo, Lucas County and suburban communities that purchase water from the city recently signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding to provide a framework for forming the authority. The TAWA service area could include all or portions of the cities of Maumee, Perrysburg, Sylvania and Toledo; Village of Whitehouse, Fulton and Lucas counties; the Northwestern Water and Sewer District and Monroe County, Michigan. Under the agreement, it would be governed by a board of trustees of seven voting members. Two members would be appointed by the mayor of Toledo, one by the Lucas County commissioners, one jointly by the mayors of Sylvania, Maumee and Whitehouse; one by the mayor of Perrysburg, one jointly by the Fulton County commissioners and board of the Northwestern Water and Sewer District and one by the Monroe County Drain Commission. TAWA would establish rates and charges for providing water service based on a goal of meeting an 8-year rate equalization plan developed through a regional water technical committee of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments. Pollick said information from a study prepared for the Wood County Economic Development Commission will also be pre-
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