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RACER SITES IN OHIO
Moraine Assembly Plant, GM complex
2601 W. Stroop Road, Moraine
Elyria Landfill Land
1400 Lowell St., Elyria
Lordstown Industrial Land
1829 Hallock Young Road, Lordstown
Ontario Stamping Plant
2525 W. 4th St., Ontario
Parma Powertrain Plant
5400 Chevrolet Blvd., Parma
Toledo Landfill Land
1455 W. Alexis Road, Toledo
Source: RACER
A $773 million trust created to find new owners for polluted former GM plants in 14 states, including a 460-acre complex in Moraine, does not provide any funding to buy contaminated homes or compensate victims of the pollution.
Residents who live across the street from the former GM plant in Moraine have hired an attorney to address their worries about the response to the discovery of carcinogenic vapors in their homes.
Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response, or RACER, is an environmental response trust formed out of the GM bankruptcy. It is designed to find buyers for more than 60 former plant properties — before cleaning up pollution blamed for environmental hazards such as carcinogenic vapors found in homes in Moraine.
Funded with $773 million from the U.S. and Canadian governments, the trust, authorized on March 31, 2011, set aside $500 million for cleanups: $39.4 million in Ohio, including $25.7 million in Moraine.
Another $262 million, as well as proceeds from land sales, is to cover administrative costs, including security, legal and utility expenses at the sites. There is no money set aside to buy contaminated homes or compensate victims of the pollution.
“That’s the uniqueness of this trust,” said Pamela Barnett, cleanup manager for RACER in Ohio, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. “We have the ability to sell these properties prior to the environmental cleanups being completed.”
Individual lawsuits against the former General Motors can still be filed, although the legal action could be complicated because the company reorganized in 2010, said Dale Vitale, chief of the environmental enforcement section for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.
“People who did not (already file a claim) may well be precluded from getting any remedy,” said Vitale, whose office signed the October 2010 settlement on behalf of the state of Ohio.
Selling polluted properties
With a portfolio originally spanning more than 7,000 acres in 14 states, the trust calls itself “the largest environmental trust in U.S. history and one of the largest holders of industrial property in the U.S.”
On the verge of selling the last of three Dayton-area parcels comprising the Moraine site — which would be the eighth sale nationwide — RACER is being held out as a leader by brownfield advocates.
“Brownfield redevelopment exemplifies sustainability, as it recycles land and infrastructure,” Robert Colangelo, CEO of the National Brownfield Association, said in October before the Great Lakes Sustainability Summit in Chicago. “RACER trust is one of the largest brownfield redevelopment opportunities in the country.”
The trust and its contractors work with federal, state and local environmental officials to clean up the plants and, when necessary, adjoining properties like in the Riverview neighborhood in Moraine.
But RACER and environmental authorities have been objects of criticism in Riverview, across from the former Moraine Assembly plant.
Vapors from volatile organic chemicals in chlorinated solvents used at the plant are migrating under Dryden Road into 40 to 60 homes and a church. Residents question the effectiveness of the systems, approved by U.S. EPA and paid for by RACER, to vent the vapors and the bureaucracy set up to carry out the cleanups.
“The left hand does not know what the left hand is doing,” said Shirley Whitt, a resident who has organized the neighborhood. The neighbors have retained two lawyers.
The trust
Heading the trust is Elliott Laws, a lawyer and former U.S. EPA official. He and a team of administrators oversee work by regional managers, including Barnett, who worked for 10 years at the Moraine site as a GM contractor before joining RACER.
While the cleanups go on, RACER has begun selling the sites. In Moraine, the International Realty Group has purchased two of three former GM parcels. RACER has a contract on the third site, although RACER officials declined to identify the buyer, citing a nondisclosure agreement.
Moraine is the only Ohio community where surrounding neighborhoods have suffered from “vapor intrusion,” Barnett said.
Tests are conducted by Arcadis, a Columbus-based contractor.
Environmental Doctor, a Centerville company, is installing the systems, radon retrieval units also found to capture the hazardous vapors.
Problems in Riverview
Before RACER’s creation, EPA officials began holding meetings in Moraine in 2010 advising residents of the hazards. So far tests of 38 of 42 homes have justified the ventilation systems, but fewer than 30 of the systems are in or scheduled for installation.
More than 20 properties, including the Moraine Civic Center, have yet to be tested for lack of access agreements from the owners. In February U.S. EPA advised RACER the systems could be installed without case-by-case approval by federal authorities.
Some residents say Environmental Doctor has struggled with installations.
“They’ve been back and forth trying to get the system right a good 20 times,” said Shari Steele, adding that she and her husband, Timothy, have been spending much of their time at a mobile home to avoid potential hazards.
“It’s been a horrible, horrible mess,” Steele said.
Officials continue to encourage residents to allow the preliminary testing and installation of the systems, if necessary.
“We’re implementing the remediation system U.S. EPA is recommending,” Barnett said, adding the systems will need to remain in Riverview until the pollution is cleaned up. “We’re not quite there yet.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2261 or lbudd@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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