PATA History Pages

Story told to OEPA for Sewer Loan/Hickory Lakes Possible Fraud

Tells EPA Division One Story while seeking Loan from Another

From: Lisa Ross
To: greg.smith@epa.state.oh.us ; steve.malone@epa.state.oh.us ; james.bonk@epa.state.oh.us ; Dan Dudley ; lisa.morris@epa.state.oh.us
Sent: Sunday, March 30, 2003 11:52 PM
Subject: Pickerington Waste Water Treatment loan and permit


Dear Division of Surface Water Staff and Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance Staff:
Lisa Morris, Surface Water
Dan Dudley, Surface Water
Greg Smith DEFA
Steve Malone, DEFA
James Bonk, DEFA

cc. Christopher Jones, Director OEPA

Subject: Pickerington Waste Water Treatment Plant Expansion, EPA financial assistance of such expansion
NPDES permit appeal to ERAC by Canal Winchester, NPDES permit responsiveness summary From August 29, 2002 hearing.

In September of 2002, I wrote to the Division of Surface Water in opposition to the Waste Water Treatment Plant, WWTP, Expansion planned by the City of Pickerington. A copy of my letter is attached to this email. In the letter, one of the main reasons I opposed this expansion was because the capacity created by such expansion and the fact that service areas were not being defined in the plan would cause duplicity of services in the Fairfield County and Canal Winchester Utilities service areas. In pre-annexation agreements with developers, in several areas of Violet Township and Pickerington,the City of Pickerington promises to provide sewer and water services to these annexation areas that are within the Fairfield County and Canal Winchester utility service areas, even though lines are in the ground and plants are online to serve these areas from Fairfield and Canal. No regional planning of capacity and service areas exists for this expansion nor in the region. Both Fairfield County and Canal Winchester have loans from the OEPA to support their infrastructure programs. In the responsiveness survey generated by the Division of Surface Water, author unknown, the EPA states the following:

Response #1 B)
While we do discourage overlapping sewer service areas, it is only when OEPA administered money is being used for the project that we feel it is appropriate to use our review authority in this way to ensure that loans can be repaid (see above); Ohio EPA does not always feel that it is appropriate to mandate distinct service areas when local money is being used; the fact that we discourage overlapping service areas does not mean that we prohibit them.

On March 21, 2003, Joyce Bushman, Pickerington City Manager, held a press conference to announce the City's intent to Purchase Hickory Lakes, a property in Violet Township, with OEPA money in a Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program, WWRSP, project. It is my understanding that this WWRSP program funnels interest payments from Waste Water Treatment Plant, WWTP, projects (or others) funded by OEPA loans back to a municipality or other organization in order to preserve wetlands or other sensitive environmental areas. I think this is a great program but in this case there is one major problem. The Pickerington WWTP expansion received the NPDES permit approval under the understanding that the funding for the WWTP expansion was to be from local funds. Now I find out the city has applied to the OEPA, Division of Environmental and Financial Assistance, DEFA, for funding for the entire WWTP expansion project including this WWRSP program to buy Hickory Lakes! Based on the above statement in the responsiveness summary and in the prior hearing responsiveness summary prepared by Greg Sanders, the criteria to grant the permit and not require regionalization activities because local funding being used is now different. Now OEPA funds and my state taxpayer dollars will be used to create duplicity of services in this community, allowing Pickerington to expand into other Designated Management Agencies, DMA's, service areas, eroding these agencies' revenue streams to pay for their infrastructure.

Further investigation into this situation brings forth the following information:

Pickerington hired RD Zande to study the use of WWRSP funds to purchase Hickory Lakes in the following document available at Pickerington City Hall:
Review of Hickory Lakes Property with Respect to the Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program by R.D.Zande, dated May 9, 2002.

Please note the date of this study as it is well before the public hearing on the NPDES permit held on August 29, 2002

2. Draft Development and Management Plan for Hickory Lakes Park and Outdoor Education Center, dated October 2002 by R. D. Zande.

3. Pickerington applied for an OEPA loan for the WWTP expansion on October 25, 2002.

4. I received my responsiveness summary from the DSW for the NPDES permit hearing postmarked December 13, 2002

5. NPDES permit was issued by the OEPA on January, 2, 2003.

6. RD Zande employs the following former Ohio EPA personnel: Matt Tin, president of Zande,formerly the Chief of the Surface Water Division and also served as acting Assistant Director of OEPA, Dale Kocarek, Roger Jacobson, Jerry Ionnedes all work for RD Zande and previously had management positions at the Ohio EPA.

I believe the City of Pickerington committed fraud to the OEPA and the public in misrepresenting its intentions for the funding of this WWTP expansion during the NPDES process. Pickerington showed intent to do such application for OEPA loan assistance upon the publication of the first Zande Study in May 2002. No Pickerington official stated such change in plans to the public or OEPA at the public hearing on the NPDES permit on August 29, 2002.

I also believe the OEPA was negligent in investigating whether the Pickerington had applied for a loan from the OEPA during the period leading up to the issuance of the permit and the creation of the responsiveness summary to the public regarding such permit. A simple phone call within your own agency, between divisions, could have provided this information. But instead, citizens had to seek such information after coming upon the knowledge of such loan application when the Hickory Lakes purchase was announced.

Based on the stated criteria used during NPDES permitting in evaluating regionalization activities, I believe the OEPA would have considered the NPDES permit in a different manner if the knowledge that OEPA loan money was going to be used to expand the Pickerington Waste Water Treatment Plant. Based on the stated evidence, I believe the NPDES permit should be revoked or reviewed given the new funding circumstances and a regionalization plan for this area be put in place so that waste of public funds does not occur now or in the future. I also believe any OEPA funding of Pickerington's WWTP expansion be suspended until such review is complete.

Although the employees of RD Zande being former OEPA employees may seem inconsequential, I do believe they know how to work and possibly abuse the system to gain the favor of the OEPA for their clients. I believe the nature of this knowledge, including the knowledge that Pickerington presented one funding plan to the Division of Surface Water to get the NPDES permit even though they were investigating and applying for OEPA loans from DEFA for the same project warrants investigation.

I believe the program to preserve wetlands through this WWRSP loan program is a good one. I do not believe the merits of this program should justify the allowance of the construction of excess sewage treatment capacity in the region with state tax supported dollars, creating the impetus for duplication of services that will damage other area utilities' revenue streams. This damage could possibly cause the other utilities affected to be unable to meet their current obligations to OEPA funding sources. This wetland preservation program should not be a reason to let this Pickerington WWTP plant expansion to proceed in the current manner. If the City of Pickerington can take advantage of this wetlands preservation program via other DEFA loans they already have, please allow an investigation for a possible modification of such loan agreements. Pickerington should also consider approaching the other regional DMA's with OEPA loans in the pipeline to help with the funding for the preservation of this wetland via the WWRSP program, if their project should be stopped , modified or funded in a different manner.

I am sending a copy of this to the Ohio EPA director, and to local press sources. I have also sent this information to Canal Winchester, who is appealing the NPDES permit to the Environmental Review Appeals Commission. I do hope action to correct this fraud and lack of OEPA investigation into the circumstances of the NPDES permit is forthcoming. In my letter and in several other individuals letters, we warned the EPA that Pickerington had been less than truthful in the past with other government agencies on a variety of topics. I thought this warning would cause the handling of this permit to be more detailed and that checks would be made. Apparently my faith in what I believe is good government was misplaced in this situation.

Sincerely,

Lisa Ross

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