Wednesday, December 25, 2002
The company volunteered to help with the flood-alleviation project.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- A Pennsylvania company is volunteering to take samples of a sandbar in Little Beaver Creek that Columbiana County officials want removed to remedy flooding.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said the sand must be analyzed before the sand bar is removed because it may contain mirex, a carcinogen that is in parts of Little Beaver Creek.
County commissioners said Wednesday that Rutgers Organics of State College, Pa., will do the sampling next month and will analyze sand samples removed from a section of the stream in the Franklin Square area of Salem Township.
County officials want to remove the sandbar to stop flooding in fields near Franklin Square and on parts of Lisbon Road.
Reason for sampling
If mirex is present in the sand, the sand may have to be disposed of in a special manner, county officials have said.
Mirex entered the stream through the operations of the Nease Chemical Co., which closed in 1973.
The plant was along state Route 14 in Perry Township.
In 1983, the location was declared a Superfund site by the federal government and targeted for cleanup.
Rutgers volunteered to conduct the sampling and analysis of the sand in Little Beaver Creek, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman said Tuesday.
It's unclear why Rutgers volunteered. A company spokesman was unavailable to explain Rutgers' involvement.
Rutgers owns the Nease site and is participating in cleaning it up.
The aim of state and environmental officials is to eventually rid the 44-acre site of toxic levels of mirex, which was used as a pesticide.
Mirex may cause cancer if people have prolonged contact with it, state environmental officials have said.