Published Friday, February 28, 2003
approves
cleanup
proposal
former WE plant
Herald Business Editor
While a final environmental cleanup plan for the area near the former Westinghouse Electric Corp. plant in Sharon has been approved by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, more details remain on the drawing board.
EPA has given thumbs up to an estimated $5.7 million cleanup. EPA's plan is separate from the Winner Development LLC cleanup inside the plant's buildings. Winner Development, owned by Jim Winner, bought much of the site in 1999 with plans to create a multi-tenant industrial site.
The biggest concern of this plan surrounds cleanup of sediment and soil in and around the Shenango River just south of the Clark Street bridge.
Consumers Pennsylvania Water Co.'s Shenango Valley Division's intake for its water treatment plant is just downstream from the cleanup area. The plant provides water to 80,000 people in Mercer, Lawrence and Trumbull counties.
Exact details remain to be worked out, but about 4,100 cubic yards, or 260 truckloads, of river sediment will be excavated and another 19 truckloads of soil will be removed along the riverbank.
Sediments will be treated and disposed of off-site, if required, and EPA said it would monitor Consumers' intake during the cleanup to ensure that the water supply isn't contaminated. Monitoring of fish in the river will also be developed.
Over the years industrial leaks, mainly PCBs, have contaminated the area. Polychlorinated biphenyls are highly toxic chemical compounds. They are known to cause skin diseases and are suspected of causing birth defects and cancer.
An engineering design spelling out exactly how this cleanup will be done is under way and is expected to be approved by late this year, said Pat Gaughan, an EPA spokesman. Actual cleanup work could begin in the spring of 2004.
In November, Robert Liptak, president of Consumers Water, attended an EPA public meeting about the cleanup and said the company was concerned whether the intake at its water plant would be protected. EPA and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials said they and other agencies would work with water company officials to ensure that the sediment is safely removed.
Thursday, Liptak said he was ready to work out details with those officials.
"The one thing we're interested in is what method will be used to excavate the sediment,'' Liptak said. "It does seem to indicate their removing sediment from the site and we do support that.''
Consumers continually monitors water treated at the plant and said it has never picked up signs of any contaminants.
Other parts of the plan call for:
» No further cleanup of groundwater at the plant. However, monitoring wells will be installed and a monitoring plan will be developed.
» An estimated 20 cubic yards of contaminated debris and sediments will be removed from the Wishart Court sewer line north of Silver Street. If needed, the debris and sediments will be treated and disposed off off-site.
» An estimated 300 cubic yards of contaminated soil will be removed from the floodway along the eastern edge of the river downstream from Clark Street and, if needed, will be treated and disposed of off-site.
Terms of the sale of the plant called for Westinghouse, which now goes by its successor company's name of Viacom Inc., to pay for any environmental cleanups outside the buildings. Winner was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. However, he previously said the site would not be affected by the Viacom cleanup.
Westinghouse operated the 58-acre plant for more than 60 years, closing it in 1985. It was placed on the federal Superfund list in 1990 after chemicals, mostly PCBs, were discovered in buildings, soil and groundwater.