Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency has extended the public comment period to Jan. 16 as it considers fast-tracking a general wastewater permit for new data centers in the Buckeye State.

Right now, the state EPA’s draft permit includes “a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio.”

But among the questions such a statement raises are WHY it is necessary. WCMH spoke to water quality advocate Amy Swank, of Dublin, who said the concern is what would be dumped in our water — anti-corrosive chemicals used to treat the pipes that could carry all that water through the HVAC systems for new data centers, for example. Her question is a fair one: Why can’t the corporations building these new data centers pay for proper sewage and wastewater treatment systems? Why do they need the permits to begin with?

There may be good answers to those questions, but finding them will take time.

State EPA spokesperson Bryant Sommerville says, “In no way should it be understood [that] Ohio EPA is allowing for a discharge to occur that will adversely impact the aquatic life, recreation, and human health associated with our stream uses. The ‘lowering’ language is the same that appears in any [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System] permit for a new or expanding discharge for everything from a small business, school, or campground,” according to the WCMH report.

Maybe those concerned about water quality in Ohio should take another look at how “lowering of water quality” became standard language in the permitting process.

Meanwhile, Tony Long, general counsel for the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, was right when he told WCMH there should be no rush by the state EPA to grant this permit. And it is again worth asking, why was there a need to draft a new general wastewater permit for data centers in the first place?

“Maybe we need more time to walk through this, to understand best what the EPA is trying to accomplish with this,” Long told WCMH.

The state EPA’s job is to protect the environment and public health.

And certainly state bureaucrats have demonstrated they have no trouble dragging their feet when it suits them.

On the matter of whether data centers can be permitted to discharge wastewater into Ohio’s bodies of water, it is time to step back, slow down and get this right