When the director of environmental protection finds upon investigation, that any water purification or sewage treatment works, on account of incompetent supervision or inefficient operation is not producing an effluent of such quality as might be reasonably obtained from such water purification or sewage treatment works, and by reason of such neglect the public water supply has become impure and dangerous to health, or that a stream, watercourse, canal, lake, pond, or body of water has become offensively polluted or has become a public nuisance or that a public water supply taken from such stream, watercourse, canal, lake, pond, or body of water has been rendered impure and dangerous to health, the director shall issue an order to the mayor or managing officer or officers of the municipal corporation, public institution, or person having charge of or owning such water purification or sewage treatment works, to secure an effluent of such quality as might be reasonably expected from such works and satisfactory to the director.
If such managing officer or officers of a municipal corporation, public institution, or person fails, for a period of five days after receiving such order, to secure an effluent satisfactory to the director, the director shall order such managing officer or officers or person owning such works to appoint, within ten days, and pay the salary of a competent person to be approved by the director, to take charge of and operate such works as to secure the results demanded by the director.
R.C. § 6111.20