Follow The Money:  Stimulus Funds & Ohio EPA

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Topics: Economy, Politics
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As part of our ongoing coverage of the federal stimulus program, WCPN is occasionally tracking where the money went and what the spending accomplished. Today, ideastream® reporter Ida Lieszkovszky is on the trail of the 283 million stimulus dollars that has gone to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Pretty much every agency that has received stimulus funding has voiced their gratitude for the extra cash. But at least in Ohio, none seemed so appreciative as the EPA and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. That’s because,

Rouch: The amount of money that we have available in any given year is someone limited.

That’s Jerry Rouch, an environmental specialist with the Ohio EPA. So, what has the agency done with the extra funding?  Well, it’s retrofitted dozens of busses statewide with pollution control equipment, assisted in retrofitting a bevy of home septic systems, and spent much of the money on water projects. For example, it has stepped up efforts like the rehabilitation of the Baldwin Fairmount Reservoir, where solids, mostly from Lake Erie, are removed from dirty and somewhat smelly water, a first step in cleaning the water. Terry Cybulski, the project’s manager showed me around the plant.

Cybulski: We can go in there, you can smell for yourself.

Ida: I’m good, thanks.

Cybulski: It’s just drinking water and lake water, that’s all it is.

Cyblulski says the water purification facility was built in 1985, so it’s really time for some upgrades, things like new instrumentation, a new computer control system, and architectural revisions and that’s what they are using the stimulus for.

Grant Marion is one of the beneficiaries. It’s estimated that stimulus spending has aided about 200 construction workers like him with these new environmental repair jobs.

Marion: It’s been pretty hard, you know, a couple of guys have been off this summer but we’re getting back rolling right now and things are looking pretty good.

Other examples of how the stimulus money is being used?  Toledo is using 540 thousand dollars for hazardous waste cleanup and akron is using several million to help repair its sewer system but nowhere near the 380-million in repairs the federal epa says akron needs to spend. 

Over at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment plant a much smellier process of cleaning wastewater is taking place.  The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is pouring about half of their allotted 10 million dollars from the stimulus bill into renovations to help protect the plant from overflowing during floods.  Construction supervisor David Terken says that has been a problem in the past. 

Terken: Changes in flow rate happen very, very quickly, and our equipment just wasn’t up to it. And so we flooded the facility and there was a lot of damage done.

When the waste water overflows past plant capacity, it ends up flowing into the Erie Canal which is alongside the treatment plant.  That overflow, in turn, gets back into the water system, eventually becoming drinking water. The obvious risk is contamination.

So, from the EPA’s vantage point these stimulus funded projects are necessary.  Again, Jerry Rouch of the Ohio EPA.

Rouch: The benefit is primarily to protect the streams and lakes and rivers in Ohio that the wastewater treatment plants discharge to. And for drinking water projects the main benefit is in providing safe drinking water.

Plus, Rouch says the new machinery being put in place, paid for largely by the stimulus bill, is more efficient and that may save taxpayers money down the road.