Work underway to stem oil spill from Niles business

NILES — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been dispatched to a scene near Grant and Walnut streets where an oil spill has occurred on the Mahoning River.

Erin Strouse, an agency spokeswoman, said the OEPA received a call around 1 p.m. today from a concerned citizen who noticed a “pretty good-sized sheen of oil on the river.”

The agency sent an emergency responder to investigate the source of the spill, Strouse said, where investigators found that a faulty oil-and-water separator at a former Arcelor Mittal Steel facility, is leaking and flowing into the river.

That location is upstream on Main Street, and Strouse said the company has taken responsibility and is cooperating fully with cleanup efforts.

Currently, first responders are trying to fix the separator and stem the leak, which is expected to be complete sometime in the next hour or so. Officials with the Trumbull County Haz-Mat team and the Niles Fire Department are also on site.

The cleanup is expected to take days, with company employees already helping with those efforts, Strouse said.

For the complete story, read Saturday's Vindicator and Vindy.com