LEATHERWORKS PLANT EPA official explains site cleanup process to Girard residents

Drum removal on the site continues.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Cleanup efforts at the former Leatherworks site here are under way, and residents learned what to expect in the coming months of the cleanup process.
Andrew Kocher of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spoke to residents at a Girard United Against Ruinous Dumping meeting Tuesday. GUARD is a citizens group formed to fight a landfill proposed for the city. Kocher has been overseeing the cleanup efforts by the landowners, Navy Friends Inc., for the Ohio EPA. He did not say where Navy Friends Inc. is located.
The Leatherworks plant began operations in 1899 and did not close until 1971 after 72 years of leather making. The site remained relatively untouched until a complaint by the city fire chief in 1991.
In the past decade there has been sampling conducted by the U.S. and Ohio EPAs at the site. McCabe Engineering of Richfield earlier this month began removing drums dumped at the site decades ago.
No connection
Kocher said the drum removal should be completed in the next couple of weeks. Some residents felt the work was being done in preparation for a landfill to move into the city, but Kocher said there is no connection between the cleanup efforts and any potential landfill.
"This is actually completely coincidental," he said.
According to Kocher the above ground drums on the site were empty with no hazardous residue, but they will be removed. He said the landowners volunteered to clean the site and the EPA determined that to be the fastest and least expensive route.
The EPA, Kocher said, found high levels of chromium and some lead in other sections of the property such as a clarifier, which is used to separate clean water from sediments, and a dry lagoon. Those areas, he said, will be cleaned at a later date.
Kocher said soil samples will be taken and tested. If the tested soil is contaminated, all the contaminated soil will be removed.
Next, Kocher said, the clarifier and lagoon will be removed.
Kocher could not give a definite date in which the property would be completely cleaned. That, he said, will depend on what is in the soil and any buried drums, and on the owners' cooperation in getting the work done.
"They are doing this voluntarily, so they could stop at anytime and that would push everything back ... so there really is no set time," he said. "They are being very cooperative, however."