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Youngstown council will consider seeking state funding to clean contaminants on property used by Vallourec Star
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider legislation Wednesday to apply for a state grant for up to $2 million to clean contaminants from a property used by Vallourec Star.
The property is the former Dempsey Steel that already has had $1.9 million worth of cleanup work with $1.2 million paid by a different state grant.
That work included soil remediation, and the removal of abandoned drums, polyethylene tanks, propane cylinders, truck batteries, lighting fixture ballasts, fluorescent bulbs and asbestos.
However, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency discovered PCB contamination in the soil after the other work was done, said city Finance Director David Bozanich.
If obtaining this brownfield grant application is unsuccessful, Bozanich said there may be other programs from the state and federal governments to obtain the money.
He added that the city and Vallourec – and hopefully the state – would come up with the money needed to clean up the site if the other options fail.
Bozanich added that the cost should be less than $2 million.
The city purchased the property at 1500 State St. for $360,000 in 2009 for Vallourec as part of the company’s $1.2 billion expansion. The company uses the location to store materials and for parking, Bozanich said.
Vallourec manufactures seamless tubes used mostly in the gas and oil industry.
Also Wednesday, council will consider an ordinance to allow the board of control to hire a company at an annual cost between $450,000 and $750,000 to manage, maintain, repair, clean the interiors and paint the exteriors of the seven water tanks owed by the city – five in Youngstown, and one each in Boardman and Austintown.
“We want to take care of our investments,” said Eugene Leson Jr., the city water department’s chief engineer. “We usually hire a contractor to take care of a specific tank. Now, we’ll have a company looking at all of them. It depends on the schedule, but after three years, all seven [tanks] would be newly painted.”