Ohio EPA orders Ashtabula to dispose of toxic soil

By SHELLEY TERRY - Staff Writer - sterry@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

May 07, 2008 08:07 pm

— ASHTABULA — City officials will have to cough up about $192,500 to remove toxic soil off the bank of the Ashtabula River by July 31.
Those are the orders the city recently received from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, City Manager Anthony Cantagallo said.
“There’s about 35,000 cubic yards of toxic soil sitting on the riverbank,” he said. “This soil was dredged in 1993, when the river was dredged, and left there.”
The EPA approved it at the time, Cantagallo said.
City Auditor Michael Zullo said he doesn’t know what fund he will take the money from because he is waiting for the bids to be announced.
Cantagallo said the bid package is ready, and it’s about 1 1/2-inches thick. The details specify the soil must be moved to a special site: the dump off the north end of State Road, where the toxic sediment from the current Ashtabula River dredging project is being pumped. The trucks hauling the toxic soil must cover the loads with secure tarps, he said. Once the soil is dumped at the State Road facility, it must be covered and layered with compressed dirt, Cantagallo said.
The Ashtabula River dredging project now is in its final stage. In January, the $13.9 million contract for Phase 2 of the dredging project was awarded, allowing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete its portion of the dredging, 1,900 feet north of the Fifth Street lift bridge in the harbor. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June.
After the spring thaw, dredging resumed last month. The key sediment contaminants in the river include polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals, according to the Corps of Engineers. These contaminants are in the soil on the riverbank, as well, Cantagallo said.
The dredging and cleanup of the Ashtabula River started in June 2006 when workers began removing more than 500,000 cubic yards, or 12.5 tons, of contaminated sediment.
The Ashtabula River flows into Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes, which together contain one-fifth of the planet’s fresh water. The $50-million cleanup of the Ashtabula River is the first to be carried out in Ohio under the Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2002, which provides for cleanup of 31 toxic hot spots known as “areas of concern” around the Great Lakes.