|
The Columbus Dispatch
www.dispatch.com
Runoff
limits not enforced, groups say
Ohio
EPA statistics show 1,100 major construction sites in Franklin County, a lawyer
for the groups said.
Friday,
October 20, 2000
Ray
Crumbley
Dispatch Staff Reporter
Ohio's
program to control mud runoff from major construction sites "is broken and
needs immediate reform,'' two Franklin County stream- watch groups said
yesterday.
"We
are calling for an emergency- level response from the Ohio EPA to strengthen
this program before the next construction season begins in the spring,'' said
Richard Sahli, lawyer for the Friends of Blacklick Creek and the Rocky Fork
Creek Watershed Protection Task Force.
Sahli,
speaking at a news conference at a home overlooking Rocky Fork Creek, said a
surge in residential and commercial development threatens the life in both
streams.
Statistics
from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency show 1,100 major construction
sites in Franklin County, Sahli said. That's the largest number of any county
and about 10 percent of the total.
About
30,000 acres in Franklin County have been stripped of natural vegetation by
construction work this year alone.
In
a letter sent yesterday to Ohio EPA Director Christopher Jones, the groups call
for an increase in staffing at the EPA, a more-effective enforcement approach
and a changes in construction-site permits to require specific plans for each
site.
The
current permit for construction-site management is very general, and no
specific site plan is required, Sahli said.
"It
could be written on the back of a napkin,'' Sahli said.
"We
believe that each site's control plan should be reviewed and approved by the
Ohio EPA before construction begins,'' Sahli said.
"We
will give the Ohio EPA a chance. If there is no response from the EPA, we will
go to Gov. Bob Taft. We are asking for some action.''
EPA
spokeswoman Kara Allison replied: "We will be asking for more staffing and
funding.''
Volunteers
monitor sites and have made some headway since notifying four developers in
July that lawsuits might be filed against them under the federal Clean Water
Act, said Lou Smith, who heads the 10- year-old Rocky Fork group.
All
sites are now in compliance and suits will not be filed. The groups' findings
are presented to the EPA, which determines whether violations exist, she said.
"We
don't think our volunteers should have to do the legwork,'' Smith said.
"This is not how this system should work.''
Among
the groups' conclusions:
· Contractors in central Ohio have been guilty
of widespread violations of their Ohio EPA permits designed to prevent runoff
of mud into local streams. Volunteers who monitored sites found "a tiny
handful of sedimentation basins'' -- the principal safeguard for removing mud.
· The state
program is understaffed. The county is served by a lone Ohio EPA site inspector
who has nine other counties to watch.
· Several local
governments have their own construction-site inspection programs, but "We
have found them to be uniformly ineffective,'' Sahli said. "Evidently,
local governments compete so hard to attract new development that they have a
debilitating conflict of interest against forcing these same developers to
comply with their responsibilities regarding runoff.''
· "The
state's enforcement effort is pitifully inadequate. It should be obvious that
sufficient staffing and ineffective enforcement go hand-in- hand,'' Sahli said.
Certified
letters were sent yesterday to two local developers, warning that alleged runoff
violations at their sites along Waggoner Road will bring federal court action
unless they are corrected within 60 days, said Kurt Keljo, the head of the
Blacklick Creek group.
Notices
were sent to Matt Callahan, managing agent for Rockford Homes, regarding the
Morrison Farms development, and to George Sicaras for the Creekstone
development.
They
were unavailable for comment.
|
