Oil spills into Bears Den Creek, into Mill Creek Park

Austintown

An oil recycling company is ordered by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to clean up about 200 gallons of oil that leaked into local streams and sewers.

Austintown Fire Chief Andy Frost Jr. said at about 8 p.m. Thursday fire crews were called to the corner of North Four Mile Run Road and Oakwood Avenue after members of the Youngstown Fire Department said they’d found an unknown substance leaking from the ground in the city.

Frost said the substance, which turned out to be a type of lubricating oil, was traced back to Everclear of Ohio, 3700 Oakwood Ave. in Austintown.

“There was a substance in Bears Den Creek than went down into the Lily Pond area of Mill Creek Park,” he said. “The EPA was called in and found a discharge coming from a sewer line at Everclear.”

Frost said 200 to 300 gallons of oil had spilled inside the facility the previous day, though fire crews were told by Everclear representatives that the spill was cleaned.

Everclear didn’t returned calls for comment Friday afternoon.

Frost said fire and hazardous materials crews were on the site until about midnight Friday setting up equipment to begin collecting the oil off the top of the water, but it’s now up to Everclear to finish the cleanup.

Erin Strouse, Ohio EPA spokeswoman, said Everclear workers were on the site Thursday night into Friday cleaning up the water, starting with the affected area in Mill Creek MetroParks.

She said the EPA found no signs of fish or wildlife distress as a result of the spill, which spanned about one mile downstream.