ASHTABULA — A $2.2 million project on the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) draft list of stimulus projects would treat groundwater at an Ashtabula Township site, which the U.S. Department of Energy certified as being clean in January 2007.

The project, if it passes a series of hearings and reviews, would be funded with $1.1 million in federal stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) money and $1.1 million from the state’s water-pollution-control loan fund.

The former RMI Extrusion Plant site on East 21st Street is listed as the site of the project, which made Ohio EPA’s intended-project priority list and is headed for a public hearing next week. Listed as “TCE groundwater remediation,” the project’s applicant is Absorbent Materials Co. LLC, a Wooster company that specializes in cleanup of groundwater trichloroethylene (TCE) using reactive glass.

Steven Spoonamore, the company’s chief executive officer, said his firm obtained a list of 22 possible projects from an employee at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the RMI site was among them. He said there was a window of only five days during which to apply for the federal stimulus money in this category. He reviewed the information and decided the RMI site would be a good candidate for his company’s process. Spoonamore, who did not visit the site as part of his research, said the narrow application window did not allow enough time to track down complete information. From the data he received, it appeared as if TCE is continuing to leach from the site in the groundwater plume.

“We applied based on known plume concerns at the site,” he said.

The RMI Extrusion plant once was used by the U.S. Department of Energy to process uranium. After the plant was closed in 1990, at least $139 million was spent remediating the site to government specifications. At least 1.1 million metric tons of contaminated materials were removed from the site and transported off-site to commercial storage.

According to a January 2007 DOE press release, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman certified environmental cleanup at the site was complete as of Jan. 19, 2007. The property was sold to Cochran Properties LLC later that year. A representative for the properties could not be reached Friday.

Rick Brewer, who was RMI’s plant manager and was involved in the cleanup process, said that, to the best of his knowledge, the site is clean.

“If I were (the owner), there is no way … I’d want that property if there were anything on it,” Brewer said.

Joseph Mayernick, executive director of Growth Partnership for Ashtabula County, has a different view of the project. His impression is that the site still is discharging contaminants into Fields Brook. His understanding is that the project would extend sewer lines under Route 11 to the site and route the groundwater into the city’s treatment facility, where it could be monitored more closely.

But Spoonamore said his company doesn’t do sewer lines.

“We have no idea what that is,” he said. “I had nothing about a sewer project sent to me.”

Melissa Fazekas, deputy director of communications for Ohio EPA, said the agency has contacted Spoonamore and is discussing his plans. Spoonamore said it’s possible he received inaccurate information about the site’s status, in which case his company would not pursue the project, thus freeing the money for other stimulus projects.

“We are continuing our discussion with him,” Fazekas said. “This is exactly why we have the public-comment period and public meeting so people can raise these issues up to us. We will of course do our due diligence before any money would ever be awarded to any project. We continue to work with him and to get information and make a determination (of) whether or not this is an appropriate project to move forward.”

The hearing is 2 p.m. Thursday in the Riffe Governmental Center, 19th floor, Room 1948, 77 S. High St., Columbus. Written comments will be received through Friday. E-mail comments can be submitted to becky.hegyi@apa.state.oh.us.

Five other Ashtabula County water-pollution control projects have been earmarked for stimulus funding. A total of $4.7 million could be made available to the county for the six projects. Of the six county projects, the RMI work had the lowest score, 12, yet garnered the lion’s share of the money. The other projects had scores ranging from 25 to 39.