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With Arcelor Mittal spill nearly cleaned, officials find small spill from City of Warren
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Most of the 400 to 500 gallons of “light oil” that spilled into the Mahoning River on Friday after leaking from the Arcelor Mittal coke-making plant in Warren Township is cleaned up.
The plant is just south of the former RG steel mill.
As officials and workers continued their work Monday to clean up that spill, officials with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency discovered a sheen on the river about another half-mile upstream that turned out to be oil from the City of Warren Environmental Services garage, said Mike Settles, Ohio EPA spokesman.
Further investigation determined that about 20 gallons of oil got into the river as a result of liquids from city vehicles that drain into a pit that apparently overflowed, possibly because of Friday’s rains, Settles said.
The building is near the river on Main Avenue Southwest near Fulton Street.
Arcelor Mittal will be required to pay the costs associated with the personnel and equipment who responded to the scene of Friday’s leak, but the company is not facing any fines associated with the problem, Settles said.
The oil came from an oil/water separator, a waste-water pond and a leaking oil recirculator, Settles said.
The Ohio EPA has been pleased with Arcelor Mittal’s response to the spill, as well as that of the City of Warren, Settles said.
“Arcelor Mittal had booms in the river before Ohio EPA even got there,” he said, adding that the company had 20 to 30 people in the river using vacuum trucks and other methods of removing the oil. Some of the oil dissipates into the air, Settles said.
The leak had been stopped as of late Friday. An on-scene coordinator was still dealing with the City of Warren spill Tuesday afternoon.
Booms placed in the Mahoning River at Belmont Street in Niles to stop the oil from traveling any farther downstream have allowed much of the oil from Arcelor Mittal to be cleaned up with vacuum trucks and absorbent pads. The booms will be removed in a day or so, Settles said.
The first report of the spill was at 1:30 p.m. Friday when a person reported seeing oil floating along the river, said Randy Pugh, Weathersfield Township fire chief. The person who saw the oil was on the bicycle path along the river in Niles.
The search for the source of the spill involved several local agencies including the Warren Township, Howland, Niles and Weathersfield fire departments, Trumbull County Emergency Management and the OEPA.