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More at OHEA.org Ohio backs off on a controversial water discharge permit plan for data centers.

And adding up what's needed to help 16 kids removed from a dangerous Vinton County home.

That's this weekend.

The state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio.

I'm Karen Kasler.

A one size fits all permit that would have made it easier for data centers to discharge their wastewater into rivers and streams.

And Lake Erie will not move forward, as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has decided to drop the idea.

The EPA had been considering streamlining its permits process for all data centers statewide, allowing them to directly discharge wastewater into Lake Erie, as well as streams and rivers, but not inland lakes.

Most of the data centers in the state discharge into local wastewater treatment facilities, which follow standards, and there's reportedly only one data center that has been issued a discharge permit.

After opponents flooded the EPA with more than 7000 comments.

The agency decided not to go with the general permit.

Among those in opposition was the Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Helena is the senior source water policy manager.

in general, we felt that the issuance of a general statewide permit that would allow all data centers, there's a lot of variability in the types of cooling methods, and what they might be discharging wasn't appropriate here.

And on top of that, there was very little within the permit itself in the way of monitoring requirements or effluent limitations, one of the only ones really being a requirement to monitor for temperature once a day.

And as we know, Lake Erie, for example, has, you know, lots of problems with harmful algal blooms.

Additional heat to being discharged in that way could impact ecosystems.

It could make those harmful algal blooms each summer worse.

And we have other nutrient and impaired waterways in the state as well.

And I can't speculate about why Ohio EPA was proposing to consider, you know, issuing this general permit other than it would treat all of all data centers equally, right?

They could see coverage.

It would kind of streamline things.

And if you look to kind of, you know, statements made by Ohio EPA in proposing the issue, the permit, that was sort of the principle that this would sort of streamline things.

Another issue is that the general permit would have included some requirements regarding stormwater discharge.

And increasingly we're hearing about complaints of stormwater violations by by data centers.

And so that's something I think, that Ohio EPA will have to continue to take a closer look at, is how is stormwater being dealt with?

Right.

If you're adding these large concrete warehouses, you may have some stormwater impacts.

Now during the construction process, data centers are required to get stormwater construction and discharge permits during that time.

But afterwards, there's not a specific category of permit that applies for stormwater discharges for data centers.

And so that's an area that the agency will have to continue to keep an eye on and take a look at when it comes to these facilities.

Politicians across the aisle, including Republican US Senator Bernie Moreno and Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton, voiced concerns with the Ohio EPA rules as drafted.

The agency said in a statement that issuing permits for a data center on a case by case basis is the most appropriate path forward at this time.

for the last decade, renters in Ohio have needed to earn a higher hourly wage each year to afford a basic two bedroom apartment.

But there's been a gap between what renters need and what they actually earn.

And it's getting bigger.

The Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio, or says renters need to earn an average of $23.82 an hour now.

But the average hourly wage is more than $4 short of that.

In 2020, the gap between the needed wage and the actual average wage was $1.57.

We have seen wages rise dramatically over the last few years, but it's just not keeping pace with that housing wage.

There's an old adage that the rent eats first, and I think this report shows that the rent is really hungry.

And so even though we've seen those wages rise, inflation is gobbling them right up.

Even though wages are going up.

It is just not fast enough to keep up with these rising housing costs.

And so it creates a environment where many of our workers in factories, in retail organizations and service centers and offices and hotels, hospitals all across the state are struggling to meet these basic needs.

And when we have families who are feeling this instability, it doesn't just affect that family.

It affects the workforce and it affects all other amenities throughout the state.

It's estimated that Ohio needs over 100,000 more units of affordable housing.

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce says government regulations and construction costs are helping create the affordable housing shortage.

But advocates say immigration policies that are shrinking the workforce are to blame as well.

The child welfare agency that serves Vinton County will be getting $1 million in state money to take care of the 16 children removed from a home in the tiny village of Hampden, near Wellston.

First responders found the kids living in what's been described as deplorable conditions in a filthy and dangerous home.

Some of the kids were hospitalized and two were near death.

The children's parents and grandparents have been charged with child endangerment.

The story is horrified people around the country and here in Ohio, including state officials, Attorney General Andy Wilson says his office is continuing to support Vinton County officials through special prosecutors and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation that this difficult and complex case is progressing, in his words, exactly the way you would think.

the the truth of these situations.

And this is the way our legal system is set up there, innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

And the actual truth of these situations comes out in court.

That's where the evidence comes.

They the only the only thing that is the truth about these cases is the evidence that comes out in court.

So that's what that's what we use under our legal system to convict people.

And that's that's the way it should be.

Are And Wilson says the million dollars in state money will help.

so when I did the Pike County case, you know, these these small counties that are hit with these extremely high profile, extremely complex cases, they just don't have the infrastructure to to deal with it.

And this is the type of, of case that can break the bank of, of a small cash strapped county.

So, you know, I think it's I think it was a good move to go down there and support them.

You want these kids taking care of you want a place in therapeutic homes where they can get the services they need.

while they're on summer break.

Lawmakers have been discussing bills to put more guardrails on home schooling and to look again at the bill banning child marriage.

I had a long discussion with Republican Representative Mark Johnson about this horrible situation.

Here's part of that conversation.

knowing the people down there, it's hard.

Just imagine this happening in Benton County because they're all great people.

And and that's a story in itself to my, in my opinion.

But I had to see for myself.

I was down there Saturday before last, and we celebrated 150 years of Hampden.

Hampden was established because it was a rail yard.

There's multiple spurs that come in there.

It's still operating today as a short line railroad, and I used to sit on the Ohio Railroad Commission as a member and we used to vote to to support them.

But but the people of Hampden are wonderful people.

So I drive down Omagh Street and there's only one other home at the end of the road, past this house.

This house has natural foliage on each side.

It sets isolated and to the front of.

It's not another house, it's the railroad yard itself.

So only rail cars come by there.

And then the neighbor says, which is rather bizarre.

I didn't even know we had children here.

And at least that's what I've been told by the good people of Hampden.

So I thought, I know the guy that owns the hardware store.

He's the mayor of MacArthur, Steve Hammond.

He's a great guy.

And he said that junior came in there one time to buy some plumbing supplies and never returned back.

He said that was over two years ago.

So we don't see these people even in the community which they live.

They come out at night from what I've been told, to do their shopping, the last customer of the day, so to speak.

I mean, it's rather bizarre.

And then how are they living?

You know, the investigation is still going on.

We I've been told that senior and grandma was receiving Social Security benefits and Medicare, and that's about all I know for as income, you know, whether they worked or not, I don't know, I believe at one time they were wanted.

They were accused of theft in Pike County of construction materials.

But outside of that, you know, they've been in four different counties and moved around.

And why they moved around.

Nobody can really give you a good excuse.

Why?

Why would you not want to have your children on Snap benefits?

Why would you not want the best for your children?

And why would you not want your child to have a normal life?

And I can understand if some had disabilities or whatever, that they have special needs, that we have special facilities to cover all of that.

And Ohio does a pretty good job with special needs children.

So it's just bizarre to just think how this happened.

And then where do we go from here?

I think, you know, the next day after I knew this happened, I know the finances of it and county, it's about an $8 million operating budget to operate the county.

That in itself is deserves a discussion.

We have three small counties, Karen, and we've got Benton.

We got Noble and Morgan counties, and they all operate on a low budgets.

Noble being the wealthiest of the three counties.

They have $11 million budget.

I think Morgan's just under what Benton's is.

So, you know, I've I've had discussions with jobs Ohio for the last three years, maybe about how do we build wealth in a community like this and bring higher paying jobs.

You know, over 70% of the people that work for living, well over 70% get in their vehicles and leave the county.

Some don't have to drive too far.

You know, if you lived in Hampden, you can go to Wellston and work at General or Pillsbury there.

And so but and there's other jobs available.

There's a lot of construction guys that come to Columbus of the building trades unions and so forth that come up there to work.

And I have a lot of second tier suppliers to Kenworth.

We have the Kenworth assembly plant in Chillicothe.

Some work there.

One of the former county commissioners used to be on worked at Kenworth.

And you know that they employ 2500 plus the second tier suppliers employ another 1300.

And if you talk to any of those employers in the manufacturing side, they love they absolutely love Benton County people.

They say they're the most dependable workforce I have and send me all that I can get.

So that's a statement in itself about the people that work there.

And seldom do they call Mark Johnson and say, I need this or I need that.

You know, they they figure out a way on how to survive.

We've got people out there with running without running water that needs running water.

And we've been working with Congressman Taylor.

And Congressman Taylor's come through on several different issues.

John Kerry, the Appalachian director for the governors, helped get 25 people running water.

I give him high marks.

And and you can't drill a well in certain areas of of Benton County because it's former coal country down in there and drill a well even at 400ft, you don't get clear water.

It's not safe to even take a bath in.

So that's an issue in itself.

But it wasn't an issue with this family because they was inside the village of Hampden.

They had water, they had sewer, they had garbage pickup.

And which makes this even more bizarre case.

You've talked about a lot here that I think needs further discussion.

But let's start let's start with the whole idea of Vinton County Children's Services is part of a regional system covering three counties.

You sent a letter to governor Mike DeWine asking the state to step in and help with the huge costs of caring for these kids.

So this this cost is significant.

And like you said, Denton County can't afford it.

That's correct.

And and I give the governor high marks.

I give my colleagues high marks.

There was not one person that said on the controlling board that day, because I was there and on the controlling board, and I think Senator George Lange said it enough.

He said we should error on given too much than not enough.

And and that's a statement in itself.

So in the future, we need to look at funding what's best for our children down the road.

What that is, I can't tell you right now, but I can tell you that there may be some low hanging fruit that we can address.

We need we've got, you know, Ohio children and youth does a pretty good job.

We've got an online basis to, to track calls and, and, and that type of thing.

And we can always use more accountability.

We could always use more visits.

But to fix this and to catch this, I don't know what we could do.

When you isolate yourself and you don't send your children to school and nobody knows you have children, even your neighbors, I mean, it's rather bizarre.

And that that whole idea that they, this family kind of operated under the radar in a way, because neighbors said they didn't know that there were kids, their kids weren't in school.

What can state lawmakers do?

Or what can the state do to try to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again?

And not to mention that the two women in the family were both married when they were, you know, teenagers under 18.

So what can the state and state lawmakers do to kind of make the situation, not something that other people would have to experience that that is a good question, and it deserves debate amongst my colleagues.

So at this time, I really don't know what all we can do.

I mean, like I said, there's probably some low hanging fruit that we can everybody can agree on.

And then the operating budget will be coming up with the next administration, and it'll be a topic of discussion.

Another topic of discussion is how do you build wealth in these communities?

You know, at one time Ohio was looking to build another prison.

And and, you know, I've been an advocate for prison reform in Ohio and done a lot of research.

And I know the counties that does a good job with prosecuting prison cases.

So you look at Noble County.

Noble County is a small county, less than 14,000 people.

But included in that 14,000 people is about 2000 inmates sitting there at noble detention nobles.

Chris Ohio State Prison, their noble county has no problem staffing their prison.

That's the only prison in Ohio that's fully staffed today.

And they've got one judge, just like Benton County and Benton County.

Judge is great.

She's she has shown great professionalism.

I want to get that clear.

She's not a backward.

She's been a former prosecutor.

I believe that she's doing a great job.

Now people need to understand that her job is to is to uphold the Ohio Revised Code and go by the revised code, plus adhere to the United States Constitution.

And everybody deserves a fair trial.

And I believe that's going to happen.

But what all the state can do getting back to Noble County's prison, we don't have a staffing problem.

The prosecutor does a good job with prison cases, you know, assaults and whatever.

And they have one judge.

And that judge takes ever prison case that goes to them that the grand jury finds merit.

You can't say that in other counties in Ohio that are very busy and overloaded and so forth.

So Benton County would be a great place for Ohio to locate another prison, if that's possible.

If we're going to do such a thing or look at jobs.

Ohio, how can Jobs Ohio help a county, these three counties like this?

Because when you're operating on an $8 million budget, there's not a whole lot of fat there to have an economic development program there.

You know, Benton County has had a very good economic development director, but she's searching for grants all the time to try to find people running water and so forth.

Following up on that real quick, are you concerned that this situation is going to put Benton County in a light that maybe business wouldn't want to invest in Benton County?

I mean, are you concerned how people are seeing Benton County in this?

Well, if you just look at the headlines and, you know, I've had this discussion with Jason Potts, who who runs he's the fire chief there at Hampden.

He said, we're getting a lot of negativity here.

Nobody tells our real story.

Nobody goes down there on a Thursday evening and looks at the full house crowd that comes for their bingo.

This is weekly and it's all done by volunteers.

Nobody comes in films, anything at my my fire department and you know, or nobody comes and talks to the people of Hampden to some degree other than did you see these children or did you know about it?

You know why.

Why didn't somebody say something, see something, say something type of thing.

But that is a wonderful place.

You know, I like to highlight the good that I see in Benton County and the, the possibilities that could come there and the things that are needed.

You know, Vinton County doesn't have a county jail.

They are partnered with over in Nelsonville.

There's a three county jail over there, and they've got ten jail spaces.

And those ten jail spaces, traditionally, we have to let somebody out to put somebody in or take part of your $8 million and send them to Lake or down to say, as far away as Butler County.

And that's happened in the past, and that goes on quite, quite often.

So it's not the state won't build a jail down there.

It's the county has to operate this jail.

And, you know, I've had discussions with Ross County.

Ross County needs some additional jail space.

I said, how about you guys partnering with Benton County?

We can build this in Benton County, and you guys help them operate it.

And and that's a discussion right there in itself.

So the sheriff needs a jail.

The sheriffs operating on a shoestring too.

But I will say this about that.

Share.

Ryan Kane is one of the best guys and he's a personal friend of mine.

We have the upcoming Benton County Fair.

I've got a mailbox full of letters to come by my rabbit.

Come help me with my animals or whatever.

Ryan and I will set a net livestock sale and we will bid on animals.

And one would think that you could buy animals cheap at Benton County.

But it's just the opposite.

You're going to pull money out of your pocket to buy these animals, and that's a statement in itself.

You know, I go to three other fairs, and Benton County is probably some of the best people right there.

And the businesses all come out.

The local people do so, but you end up with a lot of counties in Appalachian Ohio that are operating on very, very low funding.

You talk about trying to bring in jobs, Ohio, bring in jobs, bring in wealth in these areas.

Republicans in the legislature have talked about cutting the income tax, eliminating the income tax, having essentially less money to do some of these investments.

I mean, how do you square the need for more money in rural areas, but the desire to cut taxes, it's a balancing act.

You know, I don't know if we can do both.

I hope we can.

You know, if you look at the funding of jobs Ohio, they're well funded.

Liquor sales are up instead of down.

For the most part, there's more bourbon sales than they are beer sales nowadays.

And so they're well funded.

You know, let's take a few million dollars and go down and create a spec building that would create 100 jobs here in Benton County.

You know, like I mentioned, we got a tier two, tier one and two suppliers to like the Kenworth assembly plant.

Well, we don't have enough buildings right now to attract more second tier suppliers here in Ross County.

That's an issue for Ross County to deal with and they are dealing with it.

But.

About creating 100 jobs in Benton County is equal to creating 10,000 jobs in Franklin County.

That's my personal opinion.

That's my assessment.

So but I think that is something that we need to try to help these areas create wealth.

You know, the best way out of poverty is create some good paying jobs.

And and that's an issue.

And it also would create wealth and attack more of a tax base for the county.

So they would create more wealth.

And you know, there's been some solar developers over there that's proposed solar, but it hasn't developed yet.

But they've got some old strip mine, coal fields and so forth.

And let's incentivize putting development on some of these brownfield sites and former mine sites than we do, say, prime farmland.

And let's try to help build wealth where there is no wealth.

So that's a statement in itself.

But also I think you're correct in how do we deal with children's services across the state.

There's certain counties that are struggling with foster care and the expense that comes with a lot of it's due to drug addiction in southeast Ohio, up and down the Ohio River.

Some counties deal with it better than others.

And, you know, ultimately it there's some children that we have a hard time finding people that's willing to adopt them and take them on as their own.

And that's a perfect society right there and find somebody to love and care about them.

But, you know, there's some services that we simply must take care of, and we must take care of these 16 children and make sure that their well-being and their uneducated, it's going to take a whole lot.

The people that have taken these children in must be some awfully good people.

And to take these type of children in and and then we're going to have some special needs and some special care and yeah, it's all going to cost money.

But we got to help Benton County out.

Also, Johnson says he thinks the state can apply for federal funds as well to help the children and the county.

And that is it for this week for my colleagues at the state House News Bureau of Ohio Public Media.

Thanks for watching.

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Support for the Statehouse News Bureau comes from the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP.

Porter Wright is dedicated to bringing inspired legal outcomes to the Ohio business community.

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inspired every day.

And from the Ohio education Association, representing 120,000 educators who are united in their mission to create the excellent public schools every child deserves.

More at OHEA.org