MAHONING RIVER WCI Steel's riverbed cleanup to begin next week
The steelmaker has been planning to dredge the 1.3-mile section since it was ordered in 1999.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
WARREN -- Polluted sediment left over from nine decades of steelmaking will be dredged from a 1.3-mile section of the Mahoning River starting next week, part of a $1 million environmental cleanup effort paid for by WCI Steel.
WCI contracted with Metropolitan Environmental Services of Columbus for the work, set to begin Monday and to take about three months, said WCI spokesman Tim Roberts.
Plans are to position a crane on the Main Street bridge in Warren, which will lower a 12-ton dredge into the river. The dredge will be anchored by a cable network secured at four locations along the river section running across the west end of the mill site.
Roberts said the environmental workers will use an 8-inch polyethylene pipeline to draw the sediment into a centrifugal pump system. The project cost includes the planning and engineering, the dredging and the expenses related to sediment disposal.
WCI agreed in 1999 to pay about $4 million in penalties and cleanup costs to settle lawsuits filed against the company by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The lawsuits, filed in Youngstown in 1995 and in Akron in 1996, alleged that WCI had violated the federal Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.
Under consent decrees filed in U.S. District Court, the company was required to pay $1.74 million in cash penalties and other injunctive relief and was ordered to dredge the river and to complete another environmental cleanup project at a cost of about $2.2 million.
The second project, scheduled for late summer or early fall, is the installation of a liner for a pond on the mill property. Costs for that project, including the planning and site preparation, are also expected to hit $1 million.
History
Steel has been produced on WCI's Pine Avenue S.E. site since Trumbull Iron & amp; Steel set up shop there in 1912, long before federal clean air and water standards took effect.
Now, Roberts said, WCI spends $8 million to $10 million a year on environmental matters, including operation and maintenance of air pollution control devices and water pollution control equipment.
The plant uses about 64 million gallons of river water a day for steel production, he said, and any water released back into the river from the production line goes through a plant-operated sanitary sewer system.
Roberts acknowledged that the environmental cleanup expenses are coming at a bad time for the company, which just last week announced it had completed its seventh consecutive losing quarter. WCI lost $11.8 million in the three months ending April 30.
But the company spokesman said WCI had established reserve funds for its environmental clean-up expenses, so the costs shouldn't cause financial problems for the company.
WCI employs 1,900 and is the Mahoning Valley's only remaining integrated steelmaker, making steel from scratch using coke, iron ore and limestone.
vinarsky@vindy.com