The Ohio legislature could soon pass a bill allowing for deregulating the development of “ephemeral streams” — natural flows of water that form after rain and snowmelt.
The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Legislation passed by the House would eliminate this permitting and mitigation requirement, explicitly removing ephemeral features from regulation under Ohio water pollution control laws. An amended version the Senate passed Wednesday would essentially only allow the state to regulate ephemeral streams if they’re covered by the federal Clean Water Act.
Rep. Brett Hillyer, R-Uhrichsville, sponsored the legislation. Addressing lawmakers, he said the permitting process can run up costs for developers. He didn’t respond to a text message. The introduced version would have allowed for the discharging sewage or other pollutants into an ephemeral stream, according to bill analysis from the Legislative Service Commission. This provision was removed from the bill, following written testimony from Ohio EPA Director Laurie Stevenson, who warned it could adversely affect drinking water.
Environmentalists alleged the new policy would essentially contradict the H2Ohio program, a $172 million-dollar Lake Erie cleanup effort. Rising temperatures from climate change could threaten to dry up more and more waterways, according to Cory Weisbrodt of The Nature Conservancy, underscoring the need for protection.
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