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OEPA Lists Achievements on its 40th Anniversary
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is reflecting on 40 years of work to help improve the environment. The air and water in the Buckeye State today are significantly cleaner than when OEPA was formed on Oct. 23, 1972, the agency said in a news release.
“Considering the serious environmental problems Ohio faced in the 1970s, it is truly remarkable how much progress has been made," said Scott J. Nally, EPA director. "The investment of time, effort and money has been considerable and it has made a difference. Ohio’s air, land and water are significantly cleaner.”
Indications of success over the past four decades officials cite include:
- In the 1980s, 2% of big rivers met aquatic life standards. Now, 89% do.
- Since the 1970s, carbon monoxide in the air is down 80%; sulfur dioxide is down 71% and lead is down 95%.
- Today, Ohio has 40 licensed, protective landfills instead of 1,300 open dumps.
- 99% of community public water systems now meet health-based standards, up from 85% in 1993.
- Ohio EPA has collected and analyzed more than 26,000 fish samples; 12,000 aquatic insect samples and 100,000 water sediment and wastewater samples.
- Ohio EPA’s emergency response program was one of only 11 in the U.S. in 1978 and remains a leader.
- The amount of residential and commercial waste recycled annually jumped from 2.26 million tons in 1990 to 3.5 million tons in 2010.
- Ohio EPA has funded cleanups of more than 30 million scrap tires.
- Under Ohio EPA’s voluntary cleanup program, nearly 7,000 acres of blighted land have been revitalized at more than 350 sites.
Ohio EPA has awarded more than $22 million in environmental education grants; $7.5 million in grants to clean diesel emissions from school busses; nearly $6 billion to improve wastewater treatment; more than $107 million to improve water quality impaired by polluted runoff and physical alterations; and nearly $890 million to improve drinking water treatment systems.
SOURCE: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.