Boccieri : Ohio EPA must come clean on Sebring water crisis timeline

State Rep. John Boccieri today wrote to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) regarding outstanding concerns over when the agency claims it first learned of test results revealing water contamination in Sebring, Ohio. Boccieri's office recently received documentation from the state's water testing vendor, Ream and Haagar Environmental Lab, that confirms the vendor first notified the Ohio EPA in August of test results showing elevated lead levels in Sebring's water.

"I remain concerned that the agency is still not identifying exactly when it received evidence of lead in Sebring's water," said Boccieri in his letter. "I am certain that if similar test results came to the OEPA identifying contaminated water in the governor's mansion, the Statehouse or an affluent suburb of Columbus, OEPA's notification procedures would have been far better executed. However, the small rural community of Sebring, Ohio seems to have been forgotten between August 2015 and January 2016."