SEBRING, Ohio – Ohio officials have charged a former water plant operator with failing to alert residents after high levels of lead were detected in homes last summer.
The state attorney general's office filed two misdemeanor charges Wednesday against former Sebring water plant superintendent James Bates.
The charges accuse Bates of failing to give a timely notice of the tap water results to homeowners and residents in the village near Youngstown.
Bates declined to comment on the accusations Wednesday.
Sebring came under scrutiny in January when schools closed and pregnant women and small children were warned not to drink tap water after high lead levels were found months earlier.
Bates was fired soon after. Two state Environmental Protection Agency employees also were fired after agency officials said the employees mishandled the situation.
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