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Wittberg weighs in on Ohio EPA dispute

MARIETTA — The health commissioner for Washington County weighed in on an ongoing dispute between the county and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency during Thursday’s meeting of the Washington County Commissioners.

Richard Wittberg spoke to commissioners Ron Feathers, David White and Rick Walters about criticisms he has of the Ohio EPA’s response to questions posed by the county’s assistant prosecutor, Nicole Coil, during mediation.

“I had a chance to review their response and I just thought it would be worthwhile telling you my thoughts about it,” Wittberg started. “A couple general observations — the thing I think was most striking was that in their original tests and things they keep pointing to, they were talking strictly about groundwater. Then all of a sudden they started talking about surface water. Now they’ve shifted their argument completely back to groundwater.”

Going back to 2016 before the county started negotiations with the state, the EPA took groundwater and surface water samples in an effort to address nitrate and E. coli pollution in the Muskingum River and determined that the materials polluting the river were coming from failing septic systems in Devola. The testing was conducted as part of an intergovernmental agreement signed by a previous board of commissioners with the city of Marietta that the county would help pay for an expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment plant upgrade project.

“The second thing that jumps out at me is the only thing they’re talking about is the water quality where it gets to the water treatment plant there in Devola,” Wittberg said. “I also looked at how the OEPA defines pollution and I’m not sure that they have one. I can’t find it.”

Wittberg said he believes the issue of nitrates is fixing itself and he doesn’t believe that it is a problem of home septic systems.

“There is no evidence that it is going up, in fact, when you take the averages for the year, it looks like it’s going down,” he said. “If they’re going to be regulating what goes on with the residences of Devola, there is agricultural activity all across the Muskingum River Valley that is having a much broader impact on the aquifers. How can they ignore where the real problems are?”

White said he doesn’t believe the EPA’s arguments focus on anything but the legalities of the contract.

“The point that was driven home at the last meeting is, they don’t care about science, they care about the law and they’re hanging their hat on the findings and orders signed off on by the previous commissioners,” he said.

There are no further mediations scheduled, according to Matt Dooley, attorney for the city.

“We had two mediations scheduled and the county decided to cancel the second one,” he said. “As far as the city is concerned though, this is a contractual matter. They signed a contract. It’s no longer a matter of science.”

The county could face lawsuits from the Ohio EPA and the city of Marietta in relation to the county’s delay in sewering Devola and Oak Grove.

“The board of health is not as exposed as you guys are and it’s your money that’s on the line, but I would love to see this fought,” Wittberg said. “The fact that the thing they pick on keeps changing tells me they don’t think they have a very good case. If I was a judge looking at this, I would throw it out because the science doesn’t add up.”

Dooley pointed out that Wittberg had said at a commissioners’ meeting in May that the county health department should step out of the picture based on recommendation of Wittberg’s boss, Dick Taylor, chairman of the county health board.

Also at Thursday’s meeting, Washington County Engineer Roger Wright asked the commissioners to approve $16,020 to Bob Lane Welding in an effort to fix an emergency landslip situation on County Road 79, Huck Road in Lowell.

“Unfortunately, it’s uphill so if we don’t do something soon, we’ll end up with all of the landowner’s yard,” Wright said.

Commissioners approved the request.

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