The beginning --
Westinghouse Electric Corp. operated a 50-acre plant in Sharon from 1922 until 1985. At its peak production in the 1940s, the transformer plant employed close to 10,000. In 1990, the plant was placed on the federal Superfund list.
Savage Arms Co. gave Westinghouse the site in return for forgiving debt. Savage Arms was a munitions manufacturer producing mainly gun barrels. Savage Arms operated at the site during and shortly after World War II. Prior to World War II, Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Corp., an independent car manufacturer, built cars at the site. Driggs-Seabury produced the Ritz and Twombly cars; both were two-seaters.
- 1936 to 1976 -- Westinghouse used PCBs in insulating oil in transformers. Over the years, the oil seeped into the ground. The federal government banned PCB use in 1977
when polychlorinated biphenyls were linked to cancer. Westinghouse discontinued PCB use and removed and incinerated 48,000 gallons of PCBs and 15,000 gallons of organic solvents from the Sharon plant.
- December 1984 -- the state Department of Environmental Resources, now the Department of Environment Protection, investigated a spill from an underground storage tank that released more than 6,000 gallons of PCB-contaminated oil. Some of the contaminated oil leaked into sewers that drained into the Pine Run tributary of the Shenango River.
- April 1985 -- DEP ordered Westinghouse to determine the sources and amount of PCB-oil and industrial solvent contamination at the site. Armco Inc., Sawhill Tubular Division, bought land and buildings in the north sector of the plant. Although Armco found low to moderate levels of PCBs inside and outside the buildings, the company paved the outside of the property and cleaned the inside of the buildings, EPA said.
- November 1985 -- The federal Environmental Protection Agency detected PCBs at two of the four locations where Westinghouse discharged plant waste water into the Shenango River. The river supplies public drinking water to about 75,000 Shenango Valley residents.
- September 1988 -- Westinghouse found that soil and ground water in sections of the Sharon plant contained hazardous materials, including PCBs. Westinghouse entered into an agreement with the EPA requiring the company to undergo a cleanup study at the plant.
- 1989 -- American Industries bought the Y building at the plant where it remains in operation today.
- August 1990 -- EPA adds the Sharon plant to the Superfund list. Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act enacted by Congress in 1980. Superfund gives EPA the authority to stop the release or potential release of hazardous substances. It also provides funding for a cleanup when responsible parties, usually the owner and operator of a plant, are not able to do so.
- February 1994 -- EPA ordered Westinghouse to develop a plan to remove oil lying on top of ground water at the site. At the same time Winner International bought the A/B building and surrounding land to house its Winner Steel Services Co., which still operates at the site. Winner removed contaminated soil beneath the building.
- 1997 -- EPA approves a pilot test plan on how toxic materials should be removed from the plant.
- July 1998 -- Westinghouse submits a final cleanup plan on toxin removal.
Published Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998