County Beats Ohio Water Regulators In Court Fight

County officials in Ohio brought state water regulators to court over wastewater treatment plant regulations and won last month.

"The Ohio Supreme Court sided with Fairfield County in ruling that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency failed to conduct hearings to allow the county to challenge pollution limits on a wastewater-treatment plant," the Columbus Dispatch reported.

The EPA responded with a statement that it is reviewing the opinion.

In the opinion, the court said that "the EPA must follow state rulemaking procedures requiring public notice, comment and hearings before imposing pollution limits affecting bodies of water," the Dispatch paraphrased.

Fairfield County officials had charged that the Ohio EPA did not give them the opportunity to challenge stricter limits on wastewater plant discharges into Blacklick Creek.

In the opinion, Justice Judith Ann Lanzinger wrote that such limits must “'be approved through the state rulemaking process' [before the state sends them to the federal EPA for approval]," according to legal analyst J. Thomas Siwo of Bricker & Eckler LLP, per Lexology.

Lanzinger added that, as a result of the state's actions, “stakeholders in the Big Walnut watershed were denied meaningful review,” according to the Dispatch.

The state said it had acted within its rights, arguing that "setting pollution limits was not a 'rule' that required public input and hearings. The state agency said it was required to issue limits that match federal standards in the Clean Water Act. State regulators set the pollution limits for the wastewater plant because if was concerned that the treated water would cause the growth of weeds and algae," the Associated Press reported.

One justice disagreed with the ruling. Justice Terrence O’Donnell "wrote that he was worried the decision would invalidate nearly 1,800 water pollution limits already imposed by the Ohio EPA," the report said.

For more on wastewater-related regulation, visit Water Online's Regulations & Legislation Solution Center.