Ohio River water panel delays action
Commissioners representing eight states in the Ohio River watershed voted to delay a measure that would have eradicated 122 standards for pollutants.
The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission voted unanimously to table action on the proposal Thursday morning in Lansing, West Virginia, where they had been meeting the past two days, The Dispatch confirmed.
ORSANCO commissioners will be working to address the comments and concerns raised by citizens, said George Elmaraghy, a federal appointed commissioner and former chief of the Division of Surface Water at the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, when reached for comment.
With the extra time, he said, commissioners “can figure out a good solution which will be protective to the river which will not be a burden to industry or the states. I think having additional time will be good.”
The issue will be broached again at the commission’s February meeting.
Elmaraghy previously told The Dispatch he was concerned that the measure, if passed, would create standards that differ among the states on the Ohio River.
Nearly 6,000 pages of comments were submitted on the proposal from the public. All three of Ohio’s commissioners voted in June for the process to continue, leading to this week’s vote to eliminate the standards.
The Dispatch spoke to commissioners representing Ohio last week. Some said that even if the measure passed, water quality in the Ohio River — which serves as a source of drinking water for 5 million people — would not be hurt if the pollution control standards were eliminated.
ORSANCO was formed in 1948, predating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Clean Water Act. The commission issues recommended standards on pollutants which, in some cases, fills gaps or provides a more protective benchmark than other regulations.
The Ohio River is 981 miles long and stretches from the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois, where it flows into the Mississippi River.
It receives runoff from cities, farms, abandoned mines and pollutants discharged by industrial companies. The industrial companies hold federal water- pollution permits, but those rules give the states discretion in how to issue and enforce the permits.