|
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
www.cleveland.com
No shale in creek, Ohio EPA says
Sewer district must dump debris in landfill
By JOHN C. KUEHNER
Friday, October 13, 2000
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency will not
allow the regional sewer district to dump shale from a sewer
project into the last forested area of Mill Creek, a vital
Cuyahoga River tributary.
In a letter to the sewer district yesterday, the
EPA said that the shale must be limited to the Harvard Refuse
Inc. landfill off Harvard Rd. in Cleveland. Disposing of
it at other valley sites had potential environmental impacts
that EPA found unacceptable.
This has far-reaching implications because the Northeast
Ohio Regional Sewer District, which in the past left it
up to contractors to find a place for construction site
debris, now expects to watch where its debris goes before
contracts are signed.
"To me, this is a victory for the Mill Creek,
the people of the Mill Creek valley and the environment,"
said Cuyahoga Heights Councilman Renato Contipelli, who
has marshaled opposition to the proposal.
But Contipelli and others tempered their enthusiasm.
The sewer district is preparing to start a $51.5
million, 2.5-mile-long sewer tunnel under Garfield Heights
that will greatly reduce the amount of pollution spewing
into Mill Creek during rainstorms. As a subcontractor on
the project, landfill owner Stanley Lojek will take the
shale bored from the ground, an estimated 250,000 cubic
yards.
He planned to expand his landfill south along E.
71st St. and offered to pay homeowners $60,000 to let him
fill their sloping, gorgelike back yards.
Concerned residents, homeowners and valley supporters
fought that proposal.
The EPA was able to exert leverage over where the
shale is dumped because it gave the sewer district a $69.4
million low-interest loan last year for the project. In
accepting the loan, the district agreed to dispose of the
project’s spoils in an environmentally sound manner.
"The way I view this, we have taken an action
to protect the environment," said Bob Monsarrat, Jr.,
a manager in the EPA’s loan section.
Dave Klunzinger, the tunnel project manager for the
sewer district, said the district’s greatest fears are that
the EPA’s decision could delay the project or add costs.
He said the sewer district also may have to spell out more
clearly in its contracts what "environmentally acceptable"
means.
Lojek said he could not comment on the letter because
he had not seen it.
|
