Most of Scio, a village about 40 miles southeast of Canton, can drink the water again.
Too much manganese was detected in the water supply and a drinking ban involving two dozen streets was issued a week. But levels have dropped in most of the affected area, and the ban has been cut by two thirds.
The Ohio EPA monitors drinking-water quality state wide. Heidi Griesmer is deputy director of the agency for communications.
There still is a small area where the manganese levels are not yet below the long-term health advisory level. So they kept an advisory in place for that area.But everywhere else it has been lifted.”
Where's it coming from?
Griesmer says manganese is naturally occurring in the ground water of the Scio area, but the elevated levels in the village water system could have come from something like a glitch in the processing procedure, and that’s being reviewed. Meanwhile, as the cause of the spike is studied, the village is continuing to provide bottled water.
Griesmer says the Ohio EPA is charged with keeping track of 4,800 public water systems in the state and has a constantly updated source of information for anyone wanting to know about water issues where they live or are thinking of living.
“We post all of the public drinking water advisories. So, if Ohioans have any questions about, ‘What’s the drinking water like in my area?’ they go to ohio.epa.gov. There is a link on the front page to our interactive map of drinking water advisories."
