Ottawa County Receives Funding from Ohio EPA to Help Homeowners with Failing Septic Systems
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9/21/16
PUBLIC INTEREST CENTER, (614) 644-2160
MEDIA CONTACT: Heather Lauer
CITIZEN CONTACT: Darla Peelle

Ottawa County Receives Funding from Ohio EPA to Help Homeowners with Failing Septic Systems

Ohio EPA awarded a $300,000 principal forgiveness loan to Ottawa County to help qualifying homeowners address failing septic systems. This funding is offered through Ohio EPA’s Home Sewage Treatment Systems (HSTS) Repair/Replacement Program for 2016.

This state initiative, which is part of Ohio’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF), will improve the quality of life for low-income local residents by eliminating failing home sewage treatment systems at an affordable cost. In addition to correcting potential health concerns, local water quality will benefit from the improvements. And, where failing home septic systems in the Lake Erie basin are targeted, nutrient and bacteria runoff into the lake should be reduced.

Homeowners will be eligible to receive 100 percent, 85 percent or a 50 percent share in principal forgiveness for the cost to repair or replace their failing home septic treatment systems through the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund (WPCLF). The percentage is dependent on family household income levels. This project will allow the repair or replacement of failing household septic treatment systems at an affordable cost, addressing potential health concerns and local water quality problems by eliminating much of the sewage discharged into area streams. Created in 1989, the WPCLF provides below-market interest rate loans for communities to improve their wastewater treatment systems.

In addition to improvements to publicly owned treatment works, WPCLF loans have been provided for agricultural best management practices, home sewage system improvements, landfill closures, and water quality based storm water projects. The WPCLF provides technical assistance to public wastewater systems in a variety of areas from the planning, design and construction of improvements to enhancing the technical, managerial and financial capacity of these systems. WPCLF loans also make possible the restoration and protection of some of Ohio’s highest quality water bodies through the fund’s Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program.

Ohio EPA’s revolving loan funds are partially supported by federal grants and designed to last indefinitely through repayment of loans and investments in bonds. The loan program is managed by Ohio EPA’s Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance, with help from the Ohio Water Development Authority. Ohio EPA is responsible for program development and implementation, individual project coordination, and environmental and other technical reviews/approvals of projects seeking funds. The Ohio Water Development Authority provides financial management of the fund.

More information about the WPCLF is available at: epa.ohio.gov/defa/EnvironmentalandFinancialAssistance.aspx.

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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency was created in 1972 to consolidate efforts to protect and improve air quality, water quality and waste management in Ohio. Since then, air pollutants dropped by as much as 90 percent; large rivers meeting standards improved from 21 percent to 89 percent; and hundreds of polluting, open dumps were replaced with engineered landfills and an increased emphasis on waste reduction and recycling.

Ottawa County Receives Funding from Ohio EPA to Help Homeowners with Failing Septic Systems
Source: Ohio Environmental News