EPA Proposes Two Ohio Sites for Superfund List

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed adding the Armco Hamilton plant in New Miami, Ohio, and the Peters Cartridge factory in Kings Mills, Ohio, to the Superfund National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites.  If the sites are officially put on the list at a later date, they will be eligible for further investigation and cleanup under the federal Superfund program.

The proposed listing published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, April 30, triggers a 60-day public comment period. If the sites are placed on the National Priorities List, EPA will finish extensive studies on the areas, consider cleanup options and then conduct the cleanup.  The Superfund law allows EPA to identify parties responsible for the pollution.

The 120-acre Armco site in Hamilton produced coke and iron from 1937 until 1991. The area is contaminated with metals, hydrocarbons, PCBs and other chemicals. EPA discovered a waste lagoon and landfill on the site were not lined or equipped with any kind of system to collect seeping water, raising the potential for hazardous chemicals to move into underground drinking water supplies.  The site is located a half-mile from municipal water wells.

Contaminated sediments were also found in a small stream that drains into the nearby Great Miami River. Polluted sludge and slag had also been dumped along the railroad tracks that run through the property. 

AK Steel Corp. took ownership of the grounds in 1994, and under a legal agreement with EPA has been conducting an environmental investigation at the site.