SHARON Toxins in river must be removed, EPA says

The plan will bring total cleanup costs at the old plant to nearly $30 million.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- A federal watchdog agency says contaminants from the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant on Sharpsville Avenue are in the Shenango River and must be removed.
About $23 million has been spent cleaning up contaminants at the plant since it closed in 1985, and the Environmental Protection Agency says about $6 million more in cleanup is needed.
However, most of the actual work to be done isn't on the plant site itself but in the surrounding area, including the river, according to the cleanup plan being proposed by the EPA.
Public meeting
The EPA will present its findings in a public meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Sharon city building, 155 W. Connelly Blvd.
The agency said that leaks and spills from the Westinghouse plant, which manufactured medium power electrical transformers, have gotten into the river sediment and its banks, located as close as 800 feet from the plant.
That contaminated soil should be removed, the agency said.
Storm sewers connected to the plant are also contaminated and need to be cleaned, and groundwater on and adjacent to the plant grounds must be closely monitored, the EPA said.
Tests have found polychlorinated biphenyls and trichlorobenzene (both electrical insulation fluids that are deemed to be health hazards), manganese, arsenic, solvents and transformer oil in the groundwater.
PCB, a cancer-causing substance, has been found in the river sediments downstream from the Clark Street storm sewer outlet and on the riverbanks, as well as in storm sewers leading from the plant to the river. Some heavy metals, particularly zinc, have been found in some of those sewers, although the EPA said they may not have come from the Westinghouse plant.
Cleaning up the river and its banks, one storm sewer and monitoring area groundwater carries an estimated price tag of about $5.7 million, the EPA said.
Preferred option
That's the preferred cleanup option, according to the agency, which has looked at a variety of others, some of which cost more and some, less.
Westinghouse spent $12 million cleaning up the plant after it closed, digging up and hauling away 7,800 tons of soil and fly ash tainted with PCBs, burning 104 gallons of PCB liquids and removing and burning more than 4,500 capacitors containing PCBs.
The company also cleaned up surface areas such as basements, floors, wells, storage tanks and pits.
Westinghouse's successor, CBS Corp., spent about $3 million more for various cleanup work while Winner Development LLC, which bought the plant in December 1999, has spent $8 million cleaning up contaminants from the interior of the facility as it works on converting it into an industrial park.
The EPA, which declared the plant grounds to be a Superfund hazardous waste site in 1990, said Viacom Inc., successor to Westinghouse and CBS, is the responsible party for cleanup outside the plant buildings and will be expected to pay for the latest round of remediation work.
The public has until Nov. 30 to comment on the EPA's cleanup plan. A formal record of decision specifying what must be done will be issued about 90 days later.