EPA plan set for cleanup at Nease site

STAFF REPORT

SALEM — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced its plans for the latest cleanup of the former Nease Chemical Co.

Steps will include:

URemoval of the most-contaminated sediment in the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek.

URemoval of sediment in a small feeder creek.

URemoval of the most-contaminated floodplain surface soil.

UDisposal of soil and sediment at the old Nease plant, where it will be covered with clean soil.

The step is the latest in the ongoing cleanup that began in the 1970s after Nease buried the chemical mirex in unlined ponds on the property, which went into the water and soil.

Nease made household cleaners, fire retardants and pesticides that contained the chemical, which can cause damage to the skin, liver and the nervous and reproductive systems.

The closed plant is on 44 acres on state Route 14 north of Salem. Most of the property is in Columbiana County, but some is in Mahoning County.

When the sediment is moved to the Nease site, it will be dried out and placed with contaminated soil from Nease. It will be covered with clean soil and monitored to ensure that it doesn’t move or leak. Contaminated soil currently on the Nease property will be handled in a similar way.

The federal EPA says that doing the cleanup locally is a more responsible approach than sending it someplace else where it becomes another community’s problem.

Rutgers Organics Corp., which owns the site, started a $19 million cleanup on the Nease property in 2006.

Treatment with “nanoscale zero-valent iron,” or NZVI, began in one of the most contaminated spots in the ground water. NZVI is a technology that injects microscopic particles of specially treated iron into the ground water. The tiny particles will chemically clean deep ground water.

Other ponds, as well as soil, will be covered with thick plastic sheets and a layer of clean soil. The cover will prevent rain from soaking through and further spreading contamination. Other areas will be covered with only clean soil.

The new work will cost about $3.8 million. Rutgers will pay $19 million of the cleanup.