There was a party brewing Saturday night in downtown Springfield, and everyone was invited to attend.
Clark County’s brand-new “Mother Stewart’s Brewing Company” played host to a celebration marking one year since Clark County’s People for Safe Water activist group stunned the District 5 U.S. EPA and made history when over 650 concerned Clark County citizens attended the EPA’s public hearing at Northwestern High School on Aug. 27, 2015 to discuss plans to clean up the Tremont City Barrel Fill. The 8.5-acre former hazardous waste dump site threatens the sole-source aquifer that supplies all of the water for Springfield and parts of Clark and Champaign Counties.
It was the largest gathering to ever attend any District 5 U.S. EPA public hearing.
In the spirit of celebration, Mother Stewart’s donated a portion of all drink sales made between 4:00 and 7:00 to support the People for Safe Water movement. Downtown Springfield’s “Bada Bing Pizza” donated food for the event.
According to activist Larry Ricketts, the fight to protect Springfield’s pristine water supply actually started in 1983, but picked up steam in 2012 with the organization of the People for Safe Water activist group. “We are working to protect the purity of the water for Springfield and Clark County by advocating for a safe and effective clean-up of the Tremont City Barrel Fill,” says Ricketts.
The Tremont City Barrel Fill contains approximately 1.5 million gallons of industrial waste and has been designated by the District 5 U.S. EPA as a “Superfund Alternative Site.”
According to Ricketts, after the U.S. EPA discovered the site needed cleaned up, it adopted “Plan 4a,” which called for the complete removal of all materials within the barrel fill site. The Ohio EPA, and all of Clark County’s federal, state, and local officials were satisfied with the plan, which would cost an estimated $56 million total.
At the time, all parties known to be responsible for the clean-up costs agreed to Plan 4a. Those companies included: Delphi Corporation; Franklin International Inc.; General Motors Corporation; International Paper Company; The Proctor and Gamble Company; PPG Industries; Strebor/Roberts; and Worthington Cylinder Corporation
Then the courts ruled that Waste Management also shares responsibility for cleaning up the mess. Waste Management’s share equals a little over 50% of the cleanup costs.
Ricketts says after the ruling, Waste Management hired its own consultants to evaluate possible clean-up strategies.
Soon afterwards, the District 5 U.S. EPA presented “Plan 9a” for adoption. Plan 9a only costs about $26 million; but instead of removing all of the hazardous waste per Plan 4a, the U.S. EPA wants to dig up all of the barrels, remove those with liquid waste, then add a double liner to the site and put the barrels filled with solid waste back in place.
Ricketts says when People for Safe Water (PSW) asked the District 5 U.S. EPA why they wanted to adopt “a deeply flawed” Plan 9a instead of continuing with the previously agreed-upon Plan 4a, which removed all waste, the EPA responded, “Because it’s cheaper.”
PSW members want to know why the District 5 U.S. EPA is listening to consultants hired by Waste Management, and why it wants to adopt a different clean-up plan just because it’s cheaper.
According to Waste Management’s Fact Sheets, the company had over $14 billion in revenue in 2014 alone.
Ricketts mentions that the Ohio EPA, federal, state, and local officials have been very vocal about their displeasure with the U.S. EPA’s about-face with its proposed clean-up plan.
Springfield City Commissioner Karen Duncan expresses her frustration with the U.S. EPA, “This isn’t air we are talking about...you can clean the air. This is a sole source aquafer that provides drinking water to over 82,000 people. If it gets contaminated, there is no going back, you can’t fix it...you can’t ‘clean it up’...its gone.”
Both Duncan and Clark County Commissioner Dave Herier agree that there are also economic reasons that make it imperative that Clark County’s abundant aquafer is protected.
“We live in a time when water is becoming an increasingly precious resource...places like California and even states south of us are clamoring for fresh water,” says Herier, “As that resource literally dries up, companies will start looking for places to go where they can get the water they need to do business, so you’ll start to see good-paying jobs coming to Springfield, Enon, New Carlisle, and other local areas.”
Springfield City Services Director Chris Moore gushes about the quality and quantity of water coming out of Clark County’s endangered aquafer, “We have an amazing source of water...we have the ability to produce three times the amount of water we need daily...the quality of Springfield’s tap water is above and beyond any bottled water you can buy. Our water, our tap water, is that good. People are jealous of our water, and we need to make sure it’s protected”
Herier is quick to point out that officials at all levels of government and across all party lines are virtually unanimous in their resolve to make the U.S. EPA properly clean up the hazardous waste at the Tremont City Barrel Fill, “That’s not something you see every day among people holding office...that’s how important this movement is.”
There are critics who say the problem isn’t that pressing because “water can’t travel through granite.” Others say disturbing the waste is worse than leaving it alone. Some even say People for Safe Water just wants the waste dug up and trucked away so it can become “a problem in someone else’s backyard.”
Herier and Ricketts answer the critics by explaining that the aquafer is made of glacial till, not granite, making it much more porous and susceptible to contamination. Also, professionals who work with hazardous waste every day will be removing the material as the dump site, and any waste removed will be incinerated and otherwise treated to break it down as much as possible into non-hazardous material before it is properly disposed of...maybe even in Clark County. “We most definitely do not want the waste moved just to become ‘A problem in someone else’s backyard.’”
Ricketts, Duncan, Moore, and Herier are proud that the local community has pulled together and kept the District 5 U.S. EPA from enacting Plan 9a, “The U.S. EPA needs local buy-in to move forward with Plan 9a, and they don’t have it. We are willing to work with the EPA to get the Tremont City Barrel Fill cleaned up properly, but Plan 9a isn’t the answer. The site needs cleaned up right, which means the EPA needs to dig it up and truck it out!
