FINDLAY, Ohio — Work continues to protect our water from Lake Erie, with the Ohio EPA announcing the latest round of H2Ohio funding Friday morning in Findlay.
This is the fifth round of H2Ohio funding. This year, lawmakers approved just over $16.7 million going toward 14 water and sewer projects that municipalities may not have the money to finish themselves.
"Whether they're unaffordable for the residents to pay their bills or they have just never been able to find a source of funding," Ohio EPA director Anne Vogel said.
Since the program launched, more than $52 million has been spent to help deliver clean drinking water and upgrade the wastewater infrastructure in Ohio.
With this round of H2Ohio funding, the city of Findlay will receive $2 million to tie the sewage system at the Spring Lake subdivision into the city's sewage treatment system.
"This was a private sewer system that had been in place for decades and was not appropriately maintained," Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn said. "So now we are able to get that repaired and connect it to the city of Findlay's system and be able to provide those citizens the services that they really need."
Local leaders said H2Ohio helps complete these smaller projects that otherwise would have been put off and potentially gotten worse and, in turn, more expensive to fix later. And, these projects are being completed without increasing local taxes.
"We're not asking for additional tax dollars, we're bringing the tax dollars they've sent to Columbus right back home to Findlay, Ohio," John Cross, state Representative from District 83, said.
The city of Toledo was awarded $2.5 million that will go towards the $10 million design project for an upgraded raw water intake at Toledo's water treatment plant.
City leaders said that working with neighboring communities to show lawmakers in Columbus why this funding is needed has helped get these important projects funded.
"The regional cooperation is what's making all of this work. Back in 2020 when we created the regional water commission, the goal was to work as a region and approach these types of opportunities as a region," Ed Moore, director of Toledo Public Utilities, said. "And today was a show that we were successful in doing that."
Moore said the design for the project will take the majority of 2024, with work expected to begin on the raw water main starting in 2025.