Ohio House seeks to cut clean water program

SANDUSKY — The state budget bill the Ohio House recently approved heavily cuts H2Ohio, the clean water program that aims to scale back harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie. H2Ohio is the DeWine administration's clean water initiative, and it's spent plenty of money in the Sandusky area to rebuild wetlands, which act as natural filters for water flowing into Lake Erie. There is still time to reverse or modify the cuts, as the legislation is now in the Ohio Senate. Making sense of the dollars and cents In his budget proposal, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked for about $270 million over two years: about $135 million for the new fiscal year that starts on July 1 and another $135 million for Fiscal Year 2027. That request was not a proposed increase but would have kept funding at the current levels, said Pete Lupiba, a spokesman for the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. Those in the Ohio House passed a budget measure on April 9 that cuts the governor's proposal to about $150 million over two years: to about $75 million for each fiscal year. Almost all of the H2Ohio money is spent by three separate state agencies: • The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which has been restoring wetlands, many of them along the Lake Erie coast • The Ohio Department of Agriculture, which makes payments to farmers to encourage good conservation practices to prevent fertilizer from running off into the lake to fuel algal blooms • The Ohio EPA, which pays for fixing septic tanks that leak sewage, including grants to the Erie County Health Department The House budget made substantial cuts in appropriations for all three state agencies. A relatively small amount of money, $132,000, goes to the Ohio Lake Erie Commission in the House budget, the same amount of money that DeWine requested. This measure also has another provision that Lake Erie advocates dislike: It bans H2Ohio funds from being used to buy land for conservation or obtain conservation easements for projects. Speaking up State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, who serves as chairman of the House Finance Committee, did not respond to a request for comment. Matt Huffman, R-Lima, who serves as the Ohio House speaker, blamed budget constraints for the cuts, according to an article in the Toledo Blade. He said the Ohio General Assembly is not trying to eliminate the H2Ohio program. "In many ways, they've already achieved a lot of the things that they wanted to do," Huffman said. There's money "in that fund that we can use for many of the other programs. So it's really just a balancing of what that is." Pete Bucher, executive director for the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund, said the cuts need to be reversed. "Ohio's waterways, and the communities that depend on them, face complex challenges," Bucher said. "These waterways are the lifeblood of our state. The H2Ohio program is uniquely designed to tackle these issues and ensure every Ohioan has access to safe, clean water. To fulfill that promise, H2Ohio must be fully and robustly funded." He continued: "We are hopeful that by the time the legislative process plays out, these funds will be restored to the current levels at which the program operates. These drastic shifts in the funding proposals so far highlight the need for a long-term and stable funding source for this critical program." State Rep. D.J. Swearingen, R-Huron, said he supports reversing at least some of the cuts. "I am supportive of more money being added back in later during the budget process," Swearingen said. Dan Tierney, DeWine's main spokesman, said the governor is trying to defend his clean water program. "We will continue to work on the governor's budget priorities in the Senate and conference committee processes," Tierney said. State Sen. Theresa Gavarone, R-Bowling Green, said she is studying the issue and that she met with officials from the three state agencies that would be affected by the budget cuts. "I am currently doing my homework," she said. The House budget bill, House Bill 96, has now gone to the Ohio Senate. It isn't listed yet as being assigned to a Senate committee. Gavarone explained that the House passed its budget bill after the Senate had adjourned. The Senate returns to work today, so it's likely budget hearings will begin, and the bill will be sent to a committee, she said. What's next? It is likely that the Ohio Senate will make changes to the House bill, triggering a process that would result in the measure being sent to a House-Senate conference committee, which would make the final changes in the bill. Examples of wetlands projects in the Sandusky area funded by H2Ohio include work at the Moxley Wildlife Area, a state wildlife area of about 400 acres located 3 miles northwest of Sandusky, between Ohio 2 and Sandusky Bay, just north of McCartney Road. Money was also spent to acquire a 13-acre wetlands property on Kelleys Island. In addition, work has been carried out to restore two wetlands at the Pickerel Creek Wildlife Area off of U.S. 6 in Sandusky County, near the Erie County border. Other projects have been carried out in Ottawa County.