Letter urges Kasich to fight for hazard waste cleanup in Clark County


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The Springfield News-Sun has spent years covering developments at the Tremont City hazardous waste dump now under consideration for the Superfund list and will continue to dig into public health issues that are important to readers.

A group of 29 local officials have sent a letter urging Ohio Gov. John Kasich to continue to support the plan to remove all hazardous waste from the Tremont City Barrel Fill.

The letter was signed by all Clark County commissioners, Springfield city commissioners, German Twp. trustees, Clark County Board of Health and New Carlisle city council members. It was also signed by People for Safe Water President Marilyn Welker and Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce President Mike McDorman.

The letter included background on the site and argues why all of the hazardous material buried there should be removed, including citing an earlier court ruling that prevented a municipal solid waste landfill from being built adjacent to the old hazardous waste barrel fill in Tremont City.

Residents have joined with local government and health leaders for years to oppose the remediation plan for the site, a closed landfill in northern Clark County that contains about 1.5 million gallons of hazardous industrial waste.

All local agencies want the barrels removed from the site, which comes with a $56 million price tag. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ruled in favor of a different cleanup plan that will cost about $28 million: Dig up all of the barrels, remove the ones with liquid waste, add a liner and put the barrels filled with solid waste back in place.

The state government, including the Ohio EPA, has always been a big supporter of the original plan to remove all of the waste from the barrel fill, but has wavered recently, Springfield Mayor Warren Copeland said.

“We wanted them to reaffirm the position they had taken that the original solution was the best solution,” Copeland said.

Last fall, the EPA took samples of water near the hazardous waste dump for the first time since 2005 in response to community interest in gathering more data. The results are expected to be released soon.

“Ohio EPA is supportive of a final remedy that is both protective and cost effective and looks forward to our continued engagement with U.S. EPA,” wrote Ohio EPA spokesman Heidi Griesmer in an e-mail to the Springfield News-Sun.

Since the U.S. EPA selected the $28 million plan in 2011, local leaders have expressed their displeasure to officials at every level of government, including a 2012 letter to President Barack Obama.

The EPA is pursuing placing the 8.5-acre site — currently a U.S. EPA Superfund Alternative site — on the National Priorities List, which would allow for federal and state money to be used to clean up the site. The goal is to have the site listed this year.

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