GIRARD Cleanup is set to resume at old Leatherworks tannery

The initial cleanup will concentrate on one of 27 acres.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- The cleanup of the Ohio Leatherworks property will resume Monday although the content of an underground tank is uncertain.
The former tannery business, closed for about 30 years, was destroyed by fire in 1995.
The 27 acres along U.S. Route 422 are owned by Leatherworks Partnership, a group of three investors.
Anthony Cervone III, operational services manager for Innerscope Technical Services, Austintown, said Wednesday the cleanup will resume Monday.
Cervone said the effort to remove debris will concentrate on an area where the main building was located.
Although the property owners want the work to be done by the end of the month, Cervone said it will probably take longer.
During a three-day cleanup effort at the end of August by Terreri & amp; Sons of North Jackson, a large 10,000- to 20,000-gallon underground tank was discovered.
Cervone explained that preliminary testing of the liquid showed it contains "isothicyanide."
"I don't know what it is," he said, noting the tank will not be removed until the content is known.
He also doesn't know how much liquid is in the tank.
Larry Himes, administrator of the Mahoning-Trumbull Air Pollution Control Agency, who was at the site Wednesday, said he also doesn't know what the compound is.
Name incomplete? Dr. John Jackson, an organic chemist at Youngstown State University, and Dr. Larry Curtin, a YSU assistant professor of chemistry, said it appears the name isothicyanide is incomplete and part of a larger chemical compound.
The tank is not actually buried, but is in an underground room. Because of the way it's situated, the actual size can't be determined, Himes explained.
"There may be others on this site," he added.
Asbestos: The site also contains asbestos. Because the asbestos is scattered on the site, it would take too much time and become too costly to separate it from the other debris such as bricks and metal and remove it, Cervone and Himes said.
Cervone added that the debris will be wet down and hauled away to a disposal site.
The city is attempting to foreclose on the property so it can be cleaned up, made safe and commercially developed.
A pending foreclosure case involving the city and the partnership in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court has been continued until November.
yovich@vindy.com