保护俄亥俄人不受饮用水中的铅污染
Proposals Include Tighter Deadlines for Public 水 Systems to Inform and Educate 首页owners about High Lead Levels and New Funding Help for Communities to Replace Lead Service Lines and Fixtures
The federal framework that guides states in protecting the public against exposure to lead in their drinking water is flawed and the Kasich Administration is working with Ohio’s congressional delegation to seek changes. 在家里, the governor’s Mid-Biennium Review proposes new state standards to protect public health – backed by tighter deadlines and administrative fines to make public water systems notify and educate the public in a much timelier manner. The MBR also provides new funding mechanisms to help communities replace lead service lines and help schools identify and replace outdated, 含铅供水装置. 这些改革包括:
加快发布饮用水铅污染公告: 当检测结果显示铅含量达到不可接受水平时, current federal requirements allow water systems 30 days to alert those homeowners whose water supplies were tested and 60 days to complete a system-wide educational program for all customers. 这些周转时间显然太长了. The governor’s Mid-Biennium Review takes important steps to ensure that homeowners get the timely public notice they deserve whenever high levels of lead are found in drinking water. 这些变化将加快公众的注意和对消费者的教育, while empowering Ohio EPA to take on that role quickly if the water system fails to meet the new deadlines.
- Ensuring that Communities Get Information When There May Be Lead in Their 水:
- 向住户索取测试结果: Public water systems often partner with homeowners who volunteer to have their water sampled as part of that community’s periodic water-quality testing. Ohio will now require water systems to provide homeowners their test results within two business days, 而不是现在的30天. 如果供水系统不能满足紧迫的时间要求, Ohio EPA will intervene to notify homeowners itself and will have the authority to impose an administrative penalty on the noncompliant system.
- Jumpstarting Public Education When Lead Is Found in a 水 Supply: Under existing law, 当一个社区的铅含量超过联邦标准, 所需的全系统公共教育来得太晚了. MBR的建议, Ohio will significantly tighten the timeframe allowed for a community to conduct a public education campaign by requiring system-wide notification within two business days – and then cutting in half the current 60-day deadline to 30 days for completing the more in-depth public education.
为社区和学校提供财政援助以对抗铅: 加强当地预防铅的工作, Ohio intends to leverage a number of state grant and loan programs that help communities and schools address their infrastructure needs:
- 帮助社区解决铅问题: 今天, 通过其饮用水循环贷款基金项目, Ohio EPA is making low-interest loans available to eligible public water systems to conduct corrosion control studies, 优化处理工艺, identify lead service lines and design/engineer additional capital improvements to their treatment plants. Ohio EPA also will work with eligible communities to help fund longer-range activities, 包括基础设施改善, upgrades to their public drinking water plants and replacement of lead service lines that pose a risk to water quality.
- 俄亥俄州学校陈旧供水装置的识别和更换: 俄亥俄州水资源开发局, 与俄亥俄州环保局合作, will make funding available to help Ohio’s public schools identify sources of lead in drinking water from outdated, 含铅设备. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission will provide funding to identify sources of lead in private schools and to replace fixtures not covered by a recall in public and private schools.
- 帮助社区更换主要服务线路: In 2014, 卡西奇州长帮助支持了州问题1, which significantly increased Ohio’s public works program to help communities address their infrastructure needs. Communities can seek grant and loan assistance from the Ohio Public Works Commission, 透过各区工务整合委员会, 更换对水质构成威胁的铅管.
减少新建筑中的铅含量: The governor’s MBR lowers the “lead free” definition of how much lead can be in plumbing – from 8 percent to 0.25%，这将符合联邦法律.
加强社区食水测试规定: The MBR will give the Ohio EPA director authority to set water testing requirements for a system based on the age of its water infrastructure and whether or not the system has an active corrosion control program that reduces lead from seeping into old, 含铅的家用电线和固定装置.
在某些情况下需要进行腐蚀控制研究和计划: Ohio will require a corrosion control study whenever a water system changes its water source, 进行实质性的改造, 维修其系统或水处理厂, or experiences any other event that potentially impacts the quality or corrosiveness of water in the system.
延长贷款期限，为社区提供灵活性; 通过在MBR中提出的更改, 俄亥俄州环保局将能够将废水贷款期限从20年延长到30年. 另外, extended-term loan financing up to 45 years would be available to larger communities for particularly expensive wastewater and drinking water capital projects with a very long (i.e.(50年以上)设计寿命. 最后, 允许对废水和饮用水贷款进行结构化支付, communities may structure repayments to the 水 Pollution Control Loan Fund as needed to keep their customer’s user charges affordable while easing any cash flow concerns.
底线: Ohio has first-hand experience with shortcomings of the federal Safe Drinking 水 Act. By pursuing improvements at the federal level while at the same time strengthening standards for state action, we can better help our communities safeguard their drinking water from lead.