Governor signs bill protecting Ohio's drinking water
Governor John Kasich signed House Bill 512 into the law on Thursday at South Side Middle School in Columbiana.

COLUMBIANA, Ohio - Governor John Kasich signed House Bill 512 into the law on Thursday at South Side Middle School in Columbiana.
"This puts Ohio in the front. We are the leader in the country now in dealing with this problem," said Kasich.
The new legislation is aimed at protecting Ohioan's from lead in drinking water by speeding up the time in which residents must be notified of lead contamination.
Under federal law, water operators have 30 days to alert homeowners whose water supplies were tested. The new state law will allow water operator just two business days to alert homeowners and 30 days to complete system-wide educational programs for all water customers, rather than the current 60 days.
House Bill 512 was drafted shortly after the Sebring water crisis. Water customers in Sebring went months without knowing their water supply had elevated levels of lead.
"I think we still need to make more investment into making sure that we have testing centers, testing sites for children. We have to make sure that we are making investments into water quality systems and at the end of the day we have to replace this aged infrastructure because if you don't have lead pipes, you won't have lead exposure," said Ohio Senator John Schiavoni.
According to the Governor, the state intends to leverage a number of state grant and loan programs that help communities and schools address their infrastructure needs. Currently, federal law does not require testing take place in schools.
"Since children are the most at risk population from lead and lead exposure, it is important to find out if older fixtures in older schools contain lead and that are leeching so that they can be replaced," said Ohio EPA director Craig Butler.