OHIO HOUSE BILL 512 AT A GLANCE

• Signed into law by Gov. John Kasich on June 9, 2016.

• Widely regarded as the Ohio General Assembly’s response to the drinking water crises in Flint, Michigan, and the Mahoning County city of Sebring.

• Reduced to two days the deadline for public water systems to notify customers of elevated lead or copper levels in samples of those water supplies. Previously, the systems had 30 days to comply with the notification requirement.

• Reduced from 60 days to 30 days the deadline for the systems to make available to customers education materials and other pertinent information in the wake of a positive test for elevated lead or copper levels.

• Required nearly 1,900 public water systems to submit maps of all delivery lines to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. The purpose of the mapping was to identify areas in a drinking water distribution network where the age of water lines and the materials used in those lines might predict a higher likelihood of elevated lead and copper levels.

• Updated requirements for drinking water to be treated with chemicals that inhibit corrosion in those delivery lines.

• Lowered the allowance for percentage of lead in pipes, fittings or fixtures from the previous weighted average of 8 percent to 0.25 percent.

• Toughened administrative penalties for failure to comply with the new standards.

• Created avenues of funding for communities and school systems should they be confronted with expenses related to positive tests for elevated lead or copper in their drinking water.