Be careful what you dredge up

Be careful what you dredge up

EDITOR:

The wheels of government turn very slowly, but of course members of Congress have a plethora of issues with which to contend.

I wrote to Rep. Tim Ryan on April 21 suggesting that some of the funds allocated for dredging the Mahoning River be diverted to restoring the abandoned and rundown Girard Lakes area as a recreational resource. (The lakes were formed by damming Squaw Creek, a tributary of the Mahoning, so perhaps such use would be a natural extension of the allocation’s intent.)

In a letter dated June 2, Rep. Ryan replied that since I am not a constituent of his, he could not act on my request because of “congressional courtesy,” and was therefore forwarding my letter to the appropriate party. This would be Rep. Charles Wilson.

I have not yet heard from Rep. Wilson, but (since he is not from the Mahoning Valley) I did follow up my original letter with one to him offering more detail on the Mahoning dredging project

I compared the Mahoning dredging with the Alaska’s infamous “bridge to nowhere” in terms of practicality.

I noted that the Mahoning is fouled by steel mill sludge that includes PAH (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) PCBs and heavy metals and that the proposed dredging of 30 miles of the river of this noxious material (which does not decompose) would be a Herculean task.

I could have noted that the removal of mud tainted with PCBs from the Upper Hudson River (now underway) involves drying it at a special facility nearby, and the hauling the residue a landfill in Texas by rail. It is feared that some of the tainted mud may well be left behind.

I did point out that despite a massive cleanup effort, dire effects linger still in Alaska’s Prince William Sound as result of the March, 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

My expressed fear was that dredging such a long stretch of the Mahoning would unfortunately leave much oily sludge behind, meaning that the river would still be contaminated and not suitable for fishing or swimming.

“Canoeing and other boating might be feasible, but would this be worth the $100 million cost of the dredging?” I asked. I did suggest that dredging the river over limited sections (such as through Youngstown) to make appealing venues might be feasible.

Although I could not foresee a dredged Mahoning River ever becoming much of a recreational resource, the opposite could be true for a restored Girard Lakes, given the area’s size, (over 600 acres) its proximity to Trumbull County cities and the county’s relative lack of sizable recreational areas.

We recently read that Ohio is now tied with Alabama as the “10th fattest state.” Does this not indicate a need for more good-sized sites for outdoor recreation for our increasingly sedentary population?

ROBERT R. STANGER

Boardman