Officials focus on property cleanup

Campbell awaits word on Sherman project funding

By GRACE WYLER

gwyler@vindy.com

campbell

Local and state officials involved in Sherman International’s plans for a new steel mill expect to hear in the next few weeks if Campbell has received $300,000 in Clean Ohio funds to do an environmental assessment of the company’s Wilson Avenue property.

And despite questions about the company’s ability to move forward with the project, elected representatives reaffirmed their commitment to getting the proposed site ready for redevelopment, while emphasizing that their focus is on cleaning the property.

State Sen. Joe Schiavoni of Canfield, D-33rd, who has been involved with Sherman International’s plans since January, said this week that he is still committed to getting state funds to clean up the property, regardless of the company’s past.

“I’m still hopeful and confident that we’ll get this money,” Schiavoni said. “We can’t go anywhere without cleaning up the land first.”

Campbell Mayor George Krinos, who initially lauded the project as an investment that would return jobs and prosperity to the area, said this week that the city’s plans for the project remain unchanged, in spite of the past troubles of the company’s owners, Krishna and Om Sharma.

“The whole point of what we are doing right now is just getting the land cleaned,” he said.

Sherman has announced plans to build a cold-rolling mill on 40 acres of industrial land it owns in Campbell. The company claims the mill would employ 700 workers, and subsequent phases of the project would expand the plant and employ up to 3,500.

But before the project can begin to get off the ground, the company will have to go through the extensive process of cleaning up the property.

An environmental assessment is first required to find out the extent of the industrial contamination and the expected cost of cleaning up the land. A course of action must then be determined to fix environmental damage and redevelop the site.

When that assessment is finished, the city likely will apply for Clean Ohio’s $3 million cleanup grant, Krinos said. The grant requires a development partner to submit a business plan for the property.

He said he believes Sherman International would remain the city’s partner on the project.

“They own the land. So as far as I know, Sherman International will be the known-end user,” Krinos said.

The property was formerly the site of the seamless tube mill for Youngstown Sheet & Tube’s Campbell Works. The integrated steel-mill complex, which once employed more than 5,000 workers, closed in the late 1970s.

Sherman purchased 113 acres of the former steel-mill complex from LTV Steel in 2002 for $1 million. Sherman dismantled the buildings on the site and sold the industrial equipment to steel mills overseas.

To be eligible for state funds to clean up the site, the city of Campbell and Sherman International would have to commit to a redevelopment plan that includes job creation and retention, state officials said. The company also would have to sign a “Clean Hands” affidavit stating that it did not contribute to the pollution of the site.

“The grant program is set up not just for environmental cleanup — it has to have an economic-development potential,” said Ohio Department of Development spokesman William Murdoch.

The community, as the grant recipient, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that the property is cleaned up, state officials said. The company would be under no legal obligation to move forward with any redevelopment plans.

After purchasing the property in 2002, the company was responsible for operating a groundwater-recovery system at the site. Sherman’s failure to maintain that system — used to abate oil contamination on the property — “puts it in a grayer area” in regard to whether the company can be considered as a contributor to the pollution, said Jim Smith, president of Brownfield Restoration Group, which will conduct the environmental assessment of the property if the grant is approved.

The source of the contamination was first discovered in 1990, when LTV Steel owned the property, and a relatively effective groundwater-recovery system was installed, said John Kwolek, district engineer for Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

But the system has been operated sporadically since Sherman bought the property, Kwolek said, and was abandoned in 2008, allowing oil to flow freely into the river and storm sewer.

Attempts to contact Sherman about the contamination only recently resulted in cooperation, Kwolek said.

Earlier this year, Sherman hired a company to fix the groundwater-recovery system, and the repairs were completed earlier this month.

In the end, the Ohio Department of Development, which administers the Clean Ohio grants, will decide whether Sherman should benefit from the cleanup funds.

Redeveloping the former industrial site will be a laborious undertaking that will take many years, said Dan Mamula, project manager for the Mahoning River Corridor Initiative, a collaboration of the communities along the river from Lowellville to Newton Falls.

The MRCI, which was not asked to participate in the Sherman project, has been involved in most of the major redevelopment and infrastructure projects along the corridor, Mamula said.

“Brownfield redevelopment is not easy,” he said. “It’s tedious, it’s frustrating. But you just have to do it.”

Mamula said he was surprised that Sherman gave a job estimate so early in the process.

“I was bothered by the false hope,” he said. “They should have been happy they were finally getting the land cleaned up.”