Monday, July 21, 2003
The dredging would cost $100 million and take 12 to 15 years to complete.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The final piece of funding for a feasibility study on the dredging of the Mahoning River received approval by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.
U.S. Sens. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, announced that the committee approved $942,000 in funding for the study as part of the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill.
Senate OK needed
The funding needs to be approved by the Senate, which could come as early as next week, and then make it through a conference committee with House leaders. The senators will work to ensure that the river study money remains in the final bill.
The money would fund the final phase of a $3 million study that focuses on removing industrially contaminated sediment from 31 miles of the river between Warren and the Pennsylvania line.
If Congress approves the funding, the study would be finished by September 2004, said Carmen Rozzi of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh, who is the project's manager.
Cost and time
The corps estimates the dredging would cost about $100 million, and the cleanup would take 12 to 15 years, Rozzi said.
The funding is going to be a challenge, with 65 percent to be paid by the federal government, said Rozzi and William DeCicco, chairman of the Mahoning River Consortium, a group advocating the restoration and revitalization of the river.
The rest would have to come from local or state funding.
Phases
The dredging would be broken up into phases so obtaining funding for the work could be easier, Rozzi and DeCicco said.
There is about 750,000 cubic yards of sediment in the river contaminated by decades of accumulation from steel and other industries from Warren to Lowellville.
The Ohio Department of Health has maintained an advisory since 1988 against swimming or wading in that 31-mile section of the river or eating fish caught there.
"A clean river will add to the quality of life for future generations," DeCicco said. "It has been successful in other parts of the country. It can make this area a desirable place."
skolnick@vindy.com