EPA administrator, Taft, LaTourette celebrate river cleanup project
By MARK TODD
Staff Writer
mtodd@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP A $50 million scrubbing of the contaminated Ashtabula River, in the works for years, enjoyed an enthusiastic sendoff Monday morning from federal and state officials.
Stephen Johnson, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator, led the list of dignitaries who attended a ceremony to praise the project and the partnerships that made it happen.
Every drop of water that flows into Lake Erie (via the river) will be cleaner, Johnson said. Every child and grandchild will know the wonder of a cleaner Lake Erie.
The event was held a few steps from the massive State Road landfill that will be the final resting place for 500,000 cubic yards of sediment to be scooped from the river starting this fall. Earthmoving equipment creating the landfill the past six weeks served as a backdrop for the speakers.
Thats the equivalent of 10 football fields piled 25 feet high with sediment, Johnson said. Thats a lot of mud and a lot of contaminants.
The work is scheduled to be finished in three years, according to EPA information.
Gov. Bob Taft, U.S. Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Concord Township, and Brig. Gen. Bruce Berwick, commander and division engineer of the Great Lakes and Ohio River division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, also attended the ceremony. Also on hand was Joe Koncelik, Ohio EPA director.
This is a happy and historic day for Ohio and the Great Lakes region, Taft said. He labeled the river one of the most polluted areas on the Great Lakes.
The river project is the first in Ohio to be funded through the Great Lakes Legacy Act, created in 2002 to address contaminated sediment in 31 areas of concern on the American side of the Great Lakes. The project is the largest of the four Legacy Acts two in Michigan, one in Wisconsin completed so far, Berwick said.
Our partners have done their part, he said. We must do ours.
Cost of the project will be split among Legacy Act funds and the Ashtabula Port Authority and several industries. Ohio has contributed $7 million to the Port Authoritys share of the cost.
The project will remove an estimated 25,000 pounds of PCBs and other contaminants from the bottom of the river. Special environmental dredgers will remove the sediment, which will be pumped to the landfill via a three-mile pipeline.
When dredging is finished, a permanent cover will be installed and the site will be monitored for 50 years to make sure the contents stay put. Dredging will take about 13 months to complete, not counting a break for winter weather. Habitat restoration will be done in 2008.
Fred Leichert of the Ashtabula River Partnership said the river work has its roots in committees formed in the mid-1980s. Teamwork helped make the project a reality, officials said.
My congratulations to all the great partners, LaTourette said. Now lets move some dirt.
Taft agreed, telling the partners without your perseverance we wouldnt be here today.
Ashtabula City Manager Anthony Cantagallo, who spent many years away from the area, said he looked forward to seeing the river restored to its former glory. The river isnt the way I left it in 1956, he said.
Johnson assured the crowd the project will deliver swift and substantial results. The project will restore the financial health of the area by reviving recreational opportunities and property values, he said.
Instead of signs warning of contaminates, the river banks will once again be covered by fishing poles, he said.
Before the ceremony, Taft and LaTourette were given a tour of the new Lakeside High School on Sanborn Road in Saybrook Township.
