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The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has revised the results of a study of the Portage River watershed to reflect lower water quality violations by the Brush Wellman plant in Elmore.
Originally, the EPA said the company incurred 28 violations in 2008.
The agency, however, has set the number at six: four for acute whole effluent toxicity and two for copper.
It also again recommended that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) monitoring be re-instated in the company’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
PCBs were detected in a water sample of Hyde Run in 2008.
The study concluded that only half of the river’s watershed was meeting federal water quality standards.
Between 2006 and 2008, EPA staffers examined 30 streams in the watershed as well as small streams that flow directly into Lake Erie or into the Maumee River.
Deadline for homestead exemption
County auditors are reminding residents they have until June 7 to file for homestead exemption for property taxes to be paid in 2011.
The homestead program was extended by the state in 2007 and exempts the first $25,000 of market value from taxation.
Renewal forms are forwarded to taxpayers who currently have the exemption on their residence. If there are no changes in the applicant’s status the form need not be returned.
New applicants must be at least 65-years-old by Dec. 31, 2010 or permanently disabled as of Jan. 1, 2010. They must also own and occupy the home as their principal residence as of Jan. 1, 2010.
Rail crossing repairs
Four roads in Ottawa County will be closed during part of May and early June while Norfolk and Southern repairs crossings, the county engineer’s office has announced.
Brokate and Leutz roads, between State Route 163 and Salem-Carroll Road, will be closed from May 12 through May 21.
Toussaint-Portage and Benton-Carroll roads, between State Route 163 and Salem-Carroll Road, will be closed May 24 through June 6.
Modine building promoted
To help market the former Modine Manufacturing building on Bierly Avenue, Gordon Bowman, who chair’s the economic development committee of Pemberville Village Council, has sought the assistance of Bowling Green State University.
The 184,100-square-foot building has been vacant. In April, 2008, the company announced plans to close it and three other plants in the U.S. and Germany as part of a restructuring program.
Siren testing
Fifty-four sirens within the 10-mile emergency planning zone around the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant will be tested for three minutes starting at noon on May 7.
The testing is required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
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