Luis Velazquez tosses his fishing line in the Mahoning River in waters that maintain an easy flow downstream before falling over a small dam just beyond his cast.
On the river’s banks, oil residue creates a thin silhouette where the water meets land.
It’s the Mahoning — what former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams tags as the “most grossly underused” physical asset in the Mahoning Valley.
The river has been so contaminated that in 1988, the Ohio Department of Health warned against contact with sediments and fish consumption along the lower 28 miles of the river, which includes the area flowing through Youngstown. It’s most often waist-high but can get up to 12 feet deep, and it’s seldom wider than a good stone’s throw.
Velazquez, 30, a native West Sider, has heard stories all his life of pollutants lurking below the waters he has fished for 10 years and camped along as a child.
He said he is not deterred and will continue fishing the waters.
But he never eats the fish.
A river that was choked by pollutants for decades remains even further strangled by multigovernment finger-pointing. Millions of dollars have been spent on suggestions. Little has been spent on action,It truly is one of our tallest and appears great all of the signature bank wholesale Electric Products sale logo design. however.
Despite years of conversation and study and promises of funding and support, the Mahoning is no closer to clean today than it was 30 years ago when companies stopped dumping pollutants into the tributary.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a $500,000 study in 1999 and determined that regardless of how much the water quality improves over the years, the Mahoning cannot be deemed restored until the miles of contaminated sediments are addressed.
Bill DeCicco spent much of his 20-year public career as the leader of CASTLO, the economic development agency for Poland Township and the cities of Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville and Coitsville. He always thought the river would be cleansed in his lifetime.
“If you were here in 2005 and said, ‘Bill, well what do you think about cleaning up the Mahoning River?’ I’d say, ‘Well 2005, we finish up this study and by 2017, 2020 at the latest, we’ll have a clean river.’”
The nine major steel mills along the Mahoning were Republic Steel Corp. Warren plant; Republic Steel Niles plant; U.S. Steel Corp. McDonald Works; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co’s Brier Hill Works; U.S. Steel Corp. Ohio Works; Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works; and Sharon Steel Corp., Lowellville.
The U.S. EPA reported that the average net discharge from those nine steel plants exceeded 400,000 pounds per day of suspended solids, 70,000 pounds per day of oil and grease, 9,000 pounds per day of ammonia-nitrogen, 500 pounds per day of cyanide, 600 pounds per day of phenolics and 800 pounds per day of zinc.
For perspective, the million-gallon Monongahela River Ashland oil spill of 1988 was characterized as one of the most severe inland oil spills in the nation’s history, that same report said.The additions focus on key tag and Injection mold combinations,
By comparison, however, the much smaller Mahoning River chronically received the equivalent of more than four Ashland oil spills every year for decades.
The contamination stems from years of long-idled steel and other industrial companies dumping waste into the river and using the water from the river to cool products they manufactured.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a Hemroids .
Although steel companies have long since shuttered their operations in the Valley, the toxic remnants they left have survived.
A $3.5 million Corps feasibility report explored methods to extract contaminated sediments. The report called for dredging 750,000 cubic yards of in-river and riverbank contamination, and for the removal of seven small dams.
Some experts believe the dams hold the river hostage to years of industry. The suggested dredging, along with the removal of dams, will restore the river to its natural free-flowing course, according to the Corps report.
Mike Settles of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the Mahoning was most recently studied from 2006 to 2007 along the upper region upstream from the Leavittsburg dam in Trumbull County. The lower Mahoning was studied in the 1980s and 1990s. A new study will be conducted next year.
Cleanup has been stalled in Phase 2 of a feasibility study by the Corps.
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments became involved as the community sponsor in the Corps’ study. Rachel McCartney of Eastgate says the river falls under the jurisdiction of the Corps, and that is where the cleanup funds initially were going to originate.Sale Wholesale Ipod Mp4 sale 50% off online store for sale.
“Involving a federal agency, such as the Corps, has its positive and negative sides. Of course, we are now experiencing the negative side — a stalled project,” McCartney said.
Officials offer varying explanations for the delay:
Disagreements about the proper approach to development.
Weak environmental laws.
Timid political leadership.
People unwilling to demand action.
The major stumbling block, however, is determining who should pay for the project with an estimated cost of $150 million.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said the factories that polluted the river, including many now-defunct steel companies,These girls have never had a Coated Abrasives in their lives! are legally responsible to pay. He said it is unlikely to be able to collect from them or from the companies that took over their former locations.
U.S. Steel, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is the only company still in existence that once operated along the river.
“I would think it’d be highly improbable, if not impossible, for the local communities to go after these polluters. This is a federal issue,” Williams said.
On the river’s banks, oil residue creates a thin silhouette where the water meets land.
It’s the Mahoning — what former Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams tags as the “most grossly underused” physical asset in the Mahoning Valley.
The river has been so contaminated that in 1988, the Ohio Department of Health warned against contact with sediments and fish consumption along the lower 28 miles of the river, which includes the area flowing through Youngstown. It’s most often waist-high but can get up to 12 feet deep, and it’s seldom wider than a good stone’s throw.
Velazquez, 30, a native West Sider, has heard stories all his life of pollutants lurking below the waters he has fished for 10 years and camped along as a child.
He said he is not deterred and will continue fishing the waters.
But he never eats the fish.
A river that was choked by pollutants for decades remains even further strangled by multigovernment finger-pointing. Millions of dollars have been spent on suggestions. Little has been spent on action,It truly is one of our tallest and appears great all of the signature bank wholesale Electric Products sale logo design. however.
Despite years of conversation and study and promises of funding and support, the Mahoning is no closer to clean today than it was 30 years ago when companies stopped dumping pollutants into the tributary.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted a $500,000 study in 1999 and determined that regardless of how much the water quality improves over the years, the Mahoning cannot be deemed restored until the miles of contaminated sediments are addressed.
Bill DeCicco spent much of his 20-year public career as the leader of CASTLO, the economic development agency for Poland Township and the cities of Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville and Coitsville. He always thought the river would be cleansed in his lifetime.
“If you were here in 2005 and said, ‘Bill, well what do you think about cleaning up the Mahoning River?’ I’d say, ‘Well 2005, we finish up this study and by 2017, 2020 at the latest, we’ll have a clean river.’”
The nine major steel mills along the Mahoning were Republic Steel Corp. Warren plant; Republic Steel Niles plant; U.S. Steel Corp. McDonald Works; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co’s Brier Hill Works; U.S. Steel Corp. Ohio Works; Republic Steel Corp., Youngstown; Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works; and Sharon Steel Corp., Lowellville.
The U.S. EPA reported that the average net discharge from those nine steel plants exceeded 400,000 pounds per day of suspended solids, 70,000 pounds per day of oil and grease, 9,000 pounds per day of ammonia-nitrogen, 500 pounds per day of cyanide, 600 pounds per day of phenolics and 800 pounds per day of zinc.
For perspective, the million-gallon Monongahela River Ashland oil spill of 1988 was characterized as one of the most severe inland oil spills in the nation’s history, that same report said.The additions focus on key tag and Injection mold combinations,
By comparison, however, the much smaller Mahoning River chronically received the equivalent of more than four Ashland oil spills every year for decades.
The contamination stems from years of long-idled steel and other industrial companies dumping waste into the river and using the water from the river to cool products they manufactured.Flossie was one of a group of four chickens in a Hemroids .
Although steel companies have long since shuttered their operations in the Valley, the toxic remnants they left have survived.
A $3.5 million Corps feasibility report explored methods to extract contaminated sediments. The report called for dredging 750,000 cubic yards of in-river and riverbank contamination, and for the removal of seven small dams.
Some experts believe the dams hold the river hostage to years of industry. The suggested dredging, along with the removal of dams, will restore the river to its natural free-flowing course, according to the Corps report.
Mike Settles of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the Mahoning was most recently studied from 2006 to 2007 along the upper region upstream from the Leavittsburg dam in Trumbull County. The lower Mahoning was studied in the 1980s and 1990s. A new study will be conducted next year.
Cleanup has been stalled in Phase 2 of a feasibility study by the Corps.
Eastgate Regional Council of Governments became involved as the community sponsor in the Corps’ study. Rachel McCartney of Eastgate says the river falls under the jurisdiction of the Corps, and that is where the cleanup funds initially were going to originate.Sale Wholesale Ipod Mp4 sale 50% off online store for sale.
“Involving a federal agency, such as the Corps, has its positive and negative sides. Of course, we are now experiencing the negative side — a stalled project,” McCartney said.
Officials offer varying explanations for the delay:
Disagreements about the proper approach to development.
Weak environmental laws.
Timid political leadership.
People unwilling to demand action.
The major stumbling block, however, is determining who should pay for the project with an estimated cost of $150 million.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th, said the factories that polluted the river, including many now-defunct steel companies,These girls have never had a Coated Abrasives in their lives! are legally responsible to pay. He said it is unlikely to be able to collect from them or from the companies that took over their former locations.
U.S. Steel, with headquarters in Pittsburgh, is the only company still in existence that once operated along the river.
“I would think it’d be highly improbable, if not impossible, for the local communities to go after these polluters. This is a federal issue,” Williams said.
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