Article published January 29, 2009
OTTAWA RIVER
Finkbeiner announces agreement for cleanup
$43M plan will remove pollutants
By IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Decades of dumping in the Ottawa River by Toledo's manufacturing industry will be remedied by a $43 million cleanup of contaminated sediment, Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner announced yesterday.
An agreement signed yesterday by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the eight-member Ottawa River Group - of which the city of Toledo is a member - promises federal money to cover 50 percent of the cleanup cost through the Great Lakes Legacy Act.
"We are committed to cleaning up the unfortunate remnants of our manufacturing and industrial past," Mayor Finkbeiner said in announcing the agreement. "At a time when many of our city's construction workers are out of work, this $43 million project will no doubt lead to many jobs."
The other half of the cost will be paid for by the so-called Ottawa River Group, said Casey Stephens, commissioner of public service for the city.
In addition to the city, the entities comprising the group that may have a share of responsibility for the river's pollution are Chrysler LLC; DuPont; Allied Waste North America; GenCorp,
Inc.; Honeywell Inc.; Illinois Tool Works Inc., and United Technologies Corp. The city's share is about 20 percent.Mr. Stephens said the city would deposit 250,000 cubic yards of sediment from the river in its Hoffman Road Landfill in lieu of paying for the clean-up.
He said the group has accepted, in principle, the city offering space in the landfill for nontoxic dredged materials. The dredgings would take up the equivalent space of a year of household waste in the landfill. Hazardous contaminants would have to be taken to an approved site for hazardous materials.
"There is the highly contaminated material in the river - about 25,000 cubic yards - and that will have to go to a separate landfill," Mr. Stephens said.
The city would have to pay a portion of that disposal.
Dredging is an environmentally risky proposition because stirring up sediment can affect fish and wildlife habitat.
The cleanup is expected to begin this summer. The area of the river to be cleaned runs from Lagrange Street to Suder Avenue.
"We have potential liability of up to maybe 20 percent and we, of course, dispute that number but the worst-case scenario is about $4 million," Mr. Stephens said. "We are negotiating with the group to offer landfill space."
The city has about 31 years of landfill space remaining.
Toledo Councilman Lindsay Webb, whose district includes Point Place, said cleaning the river is important, as is a related project, dredging a navigational channel near the Ottawa's mouth, but she voiced some reservations about the deal.
"No one is more in favor of environmental cleanup, remediation, and dredging of the Ottawa River than I am, but the proposal on the table is to take one year of landfill airspace in exchange for $4 million," Ms. Webb said. "That airspace in the landfill is worth $5.6 million."
Ralph Cascarilla, common counsel for the Ottawa River group, said other responsible parties could be included in the group.
"The city and the companies have joined together to find an effective way to do this," Mr. Cascarilla said.
Before its cleanup, the Ashtabula River in Ashtabula, Ohio, was once thought to be Ohio's hottest spot for cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls. That distinction later passed to a small, unnamed tributary in North Toledo that once fed the Ottawa River. That tributary was shut off and cleaned up during the late 1990s.
Sediment samples collected nearly a decade ago showed the Ottawa River contained high levels of PCBs, industrial solvents used for more than 50 years. They were banned in the 1970s after scientists linked them to cancer.
High concentrations of PCBs or lead were found in the river near the Central Avenue crossing, the Stickney Avenue crossing, and near Sibley and Fraleigh creeks.
Contact Ignazio Messina at:
imessina@theblade.com
or 419-724-6171.
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