COLUMBUS — After a provision was added to the state budget allowing homeowners living adjacent to drinking-water reservoirs to mow over vegetative filter strips surrounding those bodies of water, Lima joined four other cities in a September lawsuit against the state to fight it. While that lawsuit is still to be decided in court, two state legislators are working to repeal the measure in the statehouse.
State Reps. David Leland, D-Columbus, and Michael Stinziano, D-Columbus, provided sponsor testimony for House Bill 304 on Tuesday to the Ohio House Local Government Committee. This bill, according to state Rep. Bob Cupp, R-Lima, is very succinct.
“The bill is one line,” he said. “It said, ‘That section 743.50 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.’ It didn’t take me long to read.”
Leland is hopeful the message to the committee and the rest of the House is equally clear.
“Prior to House Bill 64, protections for buffer zones, or the municipality-owned strips of land between homeowner property and the reservoir itself, were in place to ensure the safety of a water supply that was used by perhaps millions of Ohioans,” he said during his testimony. “These strips acted as filters to keep fertilizer or other chemicals used by the homeowner from leeching into the reservoir and, ultimately, our drinking water.”
Leland asserted that this provision was slipped into the budget, without going through the proper vetting process, and that the measure was added for aesthetic reasons.
“I found out after the fact that there was some concern with some people that from their property, they couldn’t get a good view of the reservoir because there were bushes and trees,” he said. “When you weigh that against the health and safety of millions of people, I don’t think it’s even a close call.”
Cupp does not sit on the Local Government Committee, and he plans on letting the bill go through the vetting process and also letting the lawsuit go through the judiciary process before rendering an opinion.
“In the next few weeks, there should be some clarity coming through on how this is going to end,” he said.
