Ohio EPA Calls for Stricter Standards on Wastewater Plants

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken measures to further enforce its standards and regulations in the effort to suppress algae in Ohio’s lakes and streams.

This potential expansion of regulations on wastewater plants would likely be accompanied by increased water bills for citizens. However, according to state reports, the monetary bump would only likely be a $1 increase per month.

The new regulations would hope to impose a statewide standard requiring wastewater plants to release no more than 1 mg of phosphorus per liter of output, a limit only currently enforced in the Lake Erie basin.

In the wake of these aggressive potential sanctions, there exists some skepticism regarding the blanket application of such a limit on a diverse body of wastewater plants with different needs and factors.

“A one-size-fits all limit in many cases will cost money where there wouldn’t be a benefit,” says Jamie Gellner, president of the Ohio Environment Water Association. “Also acknowledging that in some of those watersheds there would be a benefit to having a point-sources limit on some of those discharges.”

Whether or not this limit will be successfully implemented across the board remains to be seen as the Ohio EPA hopes to pass legislation enforcing the change in 2018. The bill would apply the limit imposed on the Lake Erie basin everywhere in the state.