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Ohio EPA Clears NE Ohio Village's Drinking Water

Scio, Ohio
Mark Pitcavage
/
unearthedohio.com
Scio, Ohio
The water supply in Scio has had to much manganese.
Credit Village of Scio
/
Village of Scio
The water supply in Scio has had to much manganese.

Most of Scio, a village about 40 miles southeast of Canton, can drink the water again.  

Too much manganese was detected in the water supply and a drinking ban involving two dozen streets was issued a week.  But levels have dropped in most of the affected area, and the ban has been cut by two thirds. 

Heidi Griesmer, Ohio EPA
Credit OEPA
/
OEPA
Heidi Griesmer, Ohio EPA

The Ohio EPA monitors drinking-water quality state wide.  HeidiGriesmeris deputy director of the agency for communications.

There still is a small area where the manganese levels are not yet below the long-term health advisory level. So they kept an advisory in place for that area.But everywhere else it has been lifted.”

Where's it coming from?

Griesmersays manganese is naturally occurring in the ground water of theScioarea, but the elevated levels in the village water system could have come from something like a glitch in the processing procedure, and that’s being reviewed. Meanwhile, as the cause of the spike is studied, the village is continuing to provide bottled water.

Heidi Griesmer on the scope of the EPA

Griesmer says the Ohio EPA is charged with keeping track of 4,800 public water systems in the state and has a constantly updated source of information for anyone wanting to know about water issues where they live or are thinking of living.

“We post all of the public drinking water advisories.  So, if Ohioans have any questions about, ‘What’s the drinking water like in my area?’ they go to ohio.epa.gov. There is a link on the front page to our interactive map of drinking water advisories."

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Ohio EPA Clears NE Ohio Village's Drinking Water

Tim Rudell
Tim Rudell has worked in broadcasting and news since his student days at Kent State in the late 1960s and early 1970s (when he earned extra money as a stringer for UPI). He began full time in radio news in 1972 in his home town of Canton, OH.