Envirosafe asks for OK to transport farm runoff

10/3/2002

Envirosafe Services of Ohio, Inc. has backed off its proposal to discharge rainwater it collects at its Wynn Road land farm - but not on the idea of using it.

The company wants permission to start trucking the excess water to its hazardous waste landfill on Otter Creek Road, where it could be used to help treat steel mill dust taken in for disposal.

Doug Roberts, Envirosafe president, said the runoff is benign enough to meet state discharge criteria but acknowledged the proposed change was made in response to pollution concerns raised last year by Oregon city officials and area residents.

The 28-acre land farm is about a mile from the hazardous waste dump and took in a number of oils, petrochemicals, and other refinery waste from 1978 to 1985. Skeptics question whether those materials have bio-degraded and been sealed off enough for rainwater to be discharged safely into a nearby Otter Creek ditch.

Comments are being accepted today at a hearing the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled to discuss Envirosafe's wastewater discharge permit for its main facility. The hearing is at 7 p.m. at the Oregon Municipal Building today, 5330 Seaman Rd.