The Northeast Ohio Four County Regional Planning and Development Organization (NEFCO), as part of its water quality management planning contracts with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) has released a draft of the fiscal year 2026 Clean Water (208) Plan facilities planning areas (FPA) update. On September 17, 2025, NEFCO’s General Policy Board has released this draft for a 30-day public comment period. NEFCO is a regional council of governments representing Portage, Stark, Summit, and Wayne Counties and the local governments within those counties. It is the state-designated water quality planning agency for the NEFCO region. This update was funded by the Ohio EPA, along with funds provided by NEFCO’s dues-paying members.
The comment period runs from September 26, 2025, through October 26, 2025. The last day comments will be accepted is October 26, 2025. The products from this update are 57 update areas consisting of about 431 parcels (large and small) and small gaps, slivers, and overlaps where four MAs have proposed FPA boundary modifications or wastewater prescription (options) changes to the FPA maps for Portage, Stark, and Summit Counties. In all, the participating MAs have proposed updates to the wastewater prescriptions for 13 FPAs across those counties, plus for one area outside of any FPA in Summit County. They have also proposed modifying three FPA boundaries across Portage and Summit Counties. The proposed FPA boundary modifications and wastewater prescription changes may be viewed on 41 .pdf maps in conjunction with an interactive online Clean Water (208) Plan draft FPA update map at https://www.nefcoplanning.org/annual-fpa-update/. The .pdf maps are organized alphabetically by county and FPA along with a cover sheet for each county summarizing the total number of updates and total number of acres being updated in the county and in each FPA.
The interactive online draft FPA update map enables the viewer to see the fine details of the 57 FPA update areas that can’t be seen on the .pdf maps due to the production scale limitations of the static .pdf maps. The viewer can enlarge the online map with the parcel layer turned on and the proposed FPA boundary and proposed prescription layers turned on then turn them off and back on to see how an update area is presented in both its current and proposed form. Viewers of the online draft update map can post comments about an update area, using the online map’s comment box. Hyperlinks to the .pdf FPA update maps are also available on the website and on the online map. Comments may also be submitted to NEFCO by email at tlaplante@nefcoplanning.org along with the update area ID number shown on the 41 .pdf maps and the online draft update map.
In addition to the above maps, another product from the update available for review and comment is proposed text-only wastewater prescription updates that MAs are proposing for the following 208 Plan’s Chapter 3 Appendices: 3-11 Windham, 3-30 Cuyahoga Valley Interceptor FPA, 3-31 Fish Creek FPA, 3-33 Springfield No. 91 FPA, and 3-35 Summit County Metropolitan Sewer District Jurisdiction Areas not part of an FPA. Please see the Portage and Summit County FPA update .pdf posted on the website to view and comment on these five draft Chapter 3 Appendices.
NEFCO staff will collect the comments and prepare a response as to how each comment was handled. Guiding the staff in this FPA update will be NEFCO’s Environmental Resources Technical Advisory Committee (ERTAC). The ERTAC is comprised of representatives from the four counties, including wastewater authorities, health departments, planners; and the Ohio EPA, and others.
The FY2026 FPA update timeline has this 208 Plan update scheduled to be considered for approval in December 2025 by the NEFCO General Policy Board. Board approval of the update in December will allow it to be submitted in late December/early January to Ohio EPA for state certification, thus completing this FPA update for fiscal year 2026.