Ohio Code 6121.041 – Waste water facilities service area
If the director of environmental protection refuses to renew or extend the period of a permit to a governmental agency or person operating a disposal system which receives sewage from a residential area, for the reason that the permit holder has failed to comply with an order of the director and has been in default for a period of at least one hundred eighty days, and the director finds that the former permit holder is creating a public nuisance under section 6111.04 of the Revised Code which adversely affects residents of a political subdivision, other than the one served by the disposal system which is in default, by affecting the properties of waters of the state in a manner which renders such waters harmful or inimical to the public health, animal or aquatic life, or the use of such waters for domestic water supply, industrial or agricultural purposes, or for recreation, the director may request the Ohio water development authority to establish a waste water facilities service area for the purpose of eliminating such nuisance. Upon receipt of the request the authority may issue orders designating a waste water facilities service area. The area shall include the waste water facilities of one or more former permit holders who are in default and the waste water facilities of all persons or governmental agencies served by such facilities, and may include any contiguous territory not served by waste water facilities that the authority determines to be desirable to include in the area in order to achieve the most efficient and economical waste disposal and treatment in the area, and any other governmental agency or person that enters an agreement with the authority to join. The order may not include facilities or territory served by waste water facilities which are in compliance with the orders of the board and the terms and conditions of a permit unless agreed to by the person or governmental agency holding the permit. In determining the areas to be served and designing facilities therefor, the authority shall consider technical feasibility and economic reasonableness in order to conserve water resources, maximize the economies of scale of regional or combined treatment facilities, and attain applicable water quality standards at reasonable cost. The authority may modify or revoke its orders in order to achieve the purposes of this section.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 6121.041
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Governmental agencies: means departments, divisions, or other units of state government, watershed districts, soil and water conservation districts, municipal corporations, counties, townships, and other political subdivisions, special water districts, including county and regional sewer and water districts, conservancy districts, sanitary districts, sewer districts, or any other public corporation or agency having the authority to acquire, construct, or operate waste water or water management facilities, the United States or any agency thereof, and any agency, commission, or authority established pursuant to an interstate compact or agreement. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Industrial waste: means any liquid, gaseous, or solid waste substance, heat, radioactivity, or radiation, resulting from any process of industry, manufacture, trade, or business, or from the development, processing, or recovery of any natural resource, together with such sewage as is present, that pollutes the waters of the state or that in the absence of a waste water facility would pollute or cause greater pollution of the waters of the state. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Person: means any individual, firm, partnership, association, or corporation, or two or more or any combination thereof. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Sewage: means any substance that contains any of the waste products or excrementitious or other discharge from the bodies of human beings or animals and that pollutes the waters of the state or that in the absence of a waste water facility would pollute or cause greater pollution of the waters of the state. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Waste water: means any water containing sewage or industrial waste or other pollutants or contaminants derived from the prior use of the water. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Waste water facilities: means facilities, property, or the modification or replacement of property for the purpose of treating, neutralizing, disposing of, stabilizing, dispersing, cooling, segregating, or holding waste water, or for the removal, reduction, containment, alteration, storage, or disposal of sewage or industrial waste or substances containing sewage or industrial waste, or for the prevention or reduction, or reduction of the concentration, of pollution of the waters of the state, including, without limitation, facilities for the withdrawal of waters of the state, facilities for the treatment and disposal of sewage or industrial waste and the residue thereof, facilities for the temporary or permanent impoundment of waste water, both surface and underground, and sanitary sewers and other systems, whether on the surface or underground, designed to transport waste water together with the equipment and furnishings thereof and their appurtenances and systems, whether on the surface or underground, including force mains and pumping facilities therefor when necessary, and facilities or expenditures that qualify as water pollution control facilities under Section 103(C)(4)(F) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended, and regulations adopted thereunder, and also includes any property or system to be used in whole or in part for any of the foregoing purposes, whether or not another purpose also is served, and any property or system incidental to or that has to do with or the end purpose of which is any of the foregoing. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Water resources: means all waters of the state occurring on the surface in natural or artificial channels, lakes, reservoirs, or impoundments, and underground in subsurface aquifers, that are available or may be made available to agricultural, industrial, commercial, recreational, public, and domestic users. See Ohio Code 6121.01
- Waters of the state: means all streams, lakes, ponds, marshes, watercourses, waterways, wells, springs, irrigation systems, drainage systems, and other bodies or accumulations of water, surface and underground, natural or artificial, that are situated wholly or partly within, or border upon, this state or are within its jurisdiction, except those private waters that do not combine or effect a junction with natural surface or underground waters. See Ohio Code 6121.01
Before issuing, modifying, or revoking any such order, the authority shall hold a public hearing within the area and give at least twenty-one days notice of the hearing and a copy of the proposed order or changes thereto to the chief executive and fiscal officer of each governmental agency and each other person subject to a proposed rate, rental, or charge. The order may fix and impose rates, rentals, or charges upon the users of, or the persons or property served by, a waste water facility or project, or upon any governmental agency or person in the area for the provision of waste water facilities services to the governmental agency or person by the authority. Such rates, rentals, or charges shall be sufficient to cover all costs, including the recovery of the capital costs and debt service expenses of the authority for waste water facility services in the area, and any debt service on obligations in effect at the time of the order. No portion of the cost of acquisition of a waste water facility by appropriation may be charged against the governmental agency from which the facility was acquired. The authority may recover a portion of such acquisition cost from the users served and property benefited by the facility at the time of acquisition. The authority shall determine the portion of such cost to be recovered from users served and property benefited at the time of acquisition on the basis of the volume and degree of treatment of sewage, industrial wastes, and other wastes from such users and property, in relation to the volume and degree of treatment of sewage, industrial waste, and other wastes from other parts of the waste water facilities service area. The order may impose any terms and conditions in the area that the authority deems necessary for the provision of such services. The authority shall mail a copy of any order or change thereto made under this section to the chief executive and fiscal officer of each governmental agency and each other person served or affected.
Each governmental agency or person subject to a rate, rental, or charge shall pay the charges when due in accordance with the order. Every officer responsible for the administration or operation of a waste water facility subject to such order and every employee thereof shall carry out the order.
The authority may appropriate property within a waste water facilities service area, including government owned waste water facilities, in accordance with Chapter 163 of the Revised Code, if the authority considers such appropriation necessary for carrying out the purposes of this section. No person shall interfere with an officer or employee of the Ohio water development authority in the care and operation of a waste water facility appropriated by the authority.
The consideration received by a governmental agency for its property which is appropriated under this section shall be placed in a separate fund which may be used by its legislative authority or governing body only for one or more of the following purposes:
(A) Credits against rates, rentals, or other charges imposed by the authority upon the agency, the users served, and property benefited by the facility, or against rates, rentals, and other charges imposed by the agency against the users served and property benefited by the facility;
(B) Construction or improvement of waste water facilities by the agency or the authority.