The Ohio House of Representatives on Wednesday approved an amendment introduced by State Rep. Deborah Newcomb, D-Conneaut, to extend the moratorium regarding household sewage treatment systems, from the Dec. 31 deadline to July 1, 2010.
The extension was passed as part of House Bill 363, also sponsored by Newcomb, streamlining Ohio’s regulation of animal feed operations.
“The (sewage treatment) amendment provides additional time to compromise on responsible and effective legislation,” said Newcomb. “There are several bills currently in debate amongst the Ohio House and Senate members, and through this moratorium, my fellow colleagues and I are offered an opportunity to agree on a bill that ensures homeowners have a range of options that are both affordable and safe for the environment.”
H.B. 236, another bill Newcomb introduced, leaves the ultimate authority for approving septic systems for each household, with local county health boards. Local health boards would use an objective science-based approach to selecting septic systems that best protect the public from health nuisances without a heavy cost to Ohio homeowners. The bill also requires the local county health board to consider the economic cost to homeowners when approving household septic systems. The bill ensures that the approved septic systems for a given household represent a diverse cost range of available systems that do not create public-health nuisances when properly operated and maintained.
County health boards would consider systems on a property-by-property basis, based on applicable local soil conditions from those septic systems that have been approved for use in Ohio. The combination of the board’s assessment and the cost range of sewage-system options allows the homeowner to choose the most appropriate system.
Along with H.B. 236, other legislation regarding household septic systems is sponsored by State Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, and State Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard; Sen. Timothy Grendell, R-Chesterland; and Sen. Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond.
It is expected that the moratorium extension will assist in bringing all General Assembly members together with the Ohio Department of Health to strike a reasonable balance among property rights, consumer costs and public health. The state has been operating on a moratorium to the original legislation, which would require homeowners to replace failing septic systems with extremely costly systems, regardless of local conditions.
