Initial notification indicates water well samples from oil spill area ‘look good’

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

VIENNA

Two residents of Sodom Hutchings Road whose well water was tested in connection with the oil spill at Kleese Development Associates said they were notified Wednesday night their water is fine.

John Hopkinson, who called the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency after contamination in his pond killed fish and other wildlife, said the Trumbull County Health Department called with the news and will provide him with the paperwork today.

Julie Barr, whose house is just north of the Kleese brine- injection facility, also got a call that her water is safe.

“Our water is OK, and they’re discussing how to do follow-up testing or a water source,” she said, adding that means providing a municipal water source.

The biggest reason for that, she said, would be because of the presence of the brine-injection well. The leak was, however, occurring for some time — they haven’t determined how long, she said.

“So it’s in the ground,” she said.

Barr said she’s happy for the results but hopes the good news won’t make people think the situation is over and allow the spill to be “swept under the rug,” including information about how the spill occurred in the first place.

“It wasn’t a simple spill,” she said, adding that a great deal of cleanup has gone on in the wetlands across from the Kleese site, making her wonder if the spill occurred over a long period of time.

Hopkinson said his pond is better than it was.

“You can still see oily residue,” he said. “But nowhere near as bad.”

Meanwhile, the cleanup of the wetlands directly across Sodom Hutchings Road from the Kleese site continued Wednesday with about 10 workers using a vacuum truck and hand tools to remove liquid from the wetlands while wearing boots and waders.

One woman living only a few hundred yards from the wetlands across from Kleese said she’s been trying to keep a neighborhood cat in her yard by feeding it to stop it from consuming fish or contaminated water.

“I saw the pictures of the fish, the muskrat,” she said of the animals that died in a pond down the street. “I’m sure cats eat all of that ... Normally you can just let them go, but right now, you just don’t know.”

Tuesday night was busy for the cleanup, she said. “The lights, the noise. The lights started coming on about 5 [p.m.]. They had huge lights all night, and this truck had this squealing noise all night.”

Phil Pegg, a Vienna Township trustee, said the information he got from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is that the oil remains in the top layer of the wetlands; the wetlands had not “digested” it yet.

He noted his concern for the people whose water wells are close to the contamination but also for the animals at a farm downstream from the spill.

Ohio law doesn’t allow for testing of wells used strictly for the feeding of farm animals, he said. “These are people’s livelihoods,” he said, adding that at some later point he intends to address that matter with Ohio legislators.

Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley and the Nestle Co. donated pallets of drinking water at the request of state Rep. Sean O’Brien, Pegg noted, and the water is still being distributed at the Vienna Township Fire Station.

Staff writer Jeanne Starmack contributed to this report.