River cleanup costs $62 million
The Canton Repository
ASHTABULA - A river that was nearly declared a U.S. EPA Superfund site is being dredged at a cost of $62 million, which could make the toxic waterway swimmable in five years.
Giant sluglike sacks are filling up outside Ashtabula Harbor, holding in their bulging bellies the toxic dregs of past industrial decades.
The Ashtabula River, about 50 miles northeast of Cleveland, has long been considered among the most polluted sites along the Lake Erie shore. It hasn't been dredged since 1962.
In the subsequent 45 years, its bottom was soiled by cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, low-level radioactive materials, heavy metals, and oil and grease from chemical plants and other heavy industry that has since scaled back, cleaned up or simply shut down and left the economically depressed area.
But the polluted soil left behind on the riverbed rose all those years so high that Canada geese could actually wade across in some places, observers said. The increasingly shallow waters limited shipping and boating.
Sport anglers also were warned not to eat contaminated fish _ an awful irony for a city whose very name means "river of many fish" in its American Indian tongue.
But by next month, the Ashtabula River should be halfway home toward a full cleanup.
Two dredging barges scour the river bottom 24 hours a day, sucking in 5,000 gallons of water and mud each minute and piping it 2 1/2 miles away into the giant plastic bags now piled 29 feet high in a permanent holding facility.
"It's been a long time coming, but it's happening," said Rick Brewer, one of the 1994 originators and now coordinator of the Ashtabula River Partnership, a public-private organization managing the project. "This river is being cleaned up, and this town is excited about it."
All of the soil from the dredges is pumped into the seven-layer-thick filter bags, which allow the water to seep out. The toxic dirt, however, stays behind in the landfill, which is lined with thick, plastic sheeting to keep any sludge from leaching out.
The site, now 29 feet high with six layers of filter bags and growing weekly, will be monitored for 50 years, according to its Environmental Protection Agency permit. The cleaned water is then returned to the river through a pipe.
"Now, we think this river could be swimmable in three to five years," Brewer said. "That's probably hard to imagine for some people, but I think it could happen."
The Ashtabula River was in danger of being listed as a U.S. EPA Superfund cleanup site in the early 1990s, said Joe Mayernick, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County.
"This could have ended very badly and cost millions and millions more," Mayernick said. "When the partnership formed to talk about cleaning up this river, it involved people that could have been suing each other, but instead found a way to work it out."
Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com
ASHTABULA - A river that was nearly declared a U.S. EPA Superfund site is being dredged at a cost of $62 million, which could make the toxic waterway swimmable in five years.
Giant sluglike sacks are filling up outside Ashtabula Harbor, holding in their bulging bellies the toxic dregs of past industrial decades.
The Ashtabula River, about 50 miles northeast of Cleveland, has long been considered among the most polluted sites along the Lake Erie shore. It hasn't been dredged since 1962.
In the subsequent 45 years, its bottom was soiled by cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls, low-level radioactive materials, heavy metals, and oil and grease from chemical plants and other heavy industry that has since scaled back, cleaned up or simply shut down and left the economically depressed area.
But the polluted soil left behind on the riverbed rose all those years so high that Canada geese could actually wade across in some places, observers said. The increasingly shallow waters limited shipping and boating.
Sport anglers also were warned not to eat contaminated fish _ an awful irony for a city whose very name means "river of many fish" in its American Indian tongue.
But by next month, the Ashtabula River should be halfway home toward a full cleanup.
Two dredging barges scour the river bottom 24 hours a day, sucking in 5,000 gallons of water and mud each minute and piping it 2 1/2 miles away into the giant plastic bags now piled 29 feet high in a permanent holding facility.
"It's been a long time coming, but it's happening," said Rick Brewer, one of the 1994 originators and now coordinator of the Ashtabula River Partnership, a public-private organization managing the project. "This river is being cleaned up, and this town is excited about it."
All of the soil from the dredges is pumped into the seven-layer-thick filter bags, which allow the water to seep out. The toxic dirt, however, stays behind in the landfill, which is lined with thick, plastic sheeting to keep any sludge from leaching out.
The site, now 29 feet high with six layers of filter bags and growing weekly, will be monitored for 50 years, according to its Environmental Protection Agency permit. The cleaned water is then returned to the river through a pipe.
"Now, we think this river could be swimmable in three to five years," Brewer said. "That's probably hard to imagine for some people, but I think it could happen."
The Ashtabula River was in danger of being listed as a U.S. EPA Superfund cleanup site in the early 1990s, said Joe Mayernick, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County.
"This could have ended very badly and cost millions and millions more," Mayernick said. "When the partnership formed to talk about cleaning up this river, it involved people that could have been suing each other, but instead found a way to work it out."
Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com
