Defense site cleanup

Defense site cleanup
WASHINGTON -- The Army Corps of Engineers is off to a slow start in cleaning up thousands of former defense sites across the country, says a General Accounting Office report released by U.S. Reps. Tom Sawyer of Akron, D-14th, and John Dingell of Michigan. Fewer than one-third of the sites requiring cleanup have been addressed, says the report, which the congressmen requested. Twenty-five former defense sites in Ohio -- including the Lordstown Ordnance Depot -- require additional work, the report said. Almost 60 years after the United States entered World War II, cleanup efforts are as much as 70 years from completion, the study said. The report said progress is satisfactory at the Ravenna Arsenal, most of which is being cleaned up under a program for active sites.