GERMAN TOWNSHIP — Wednesday night the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the community in Clark County it’s likely going to be a while before crews can start removing toxic waste from a nearby barrel fill site.
The site, just outside of Springfield, stopped disposing of waste in 1980.
Decades later a group of companies that were either former site owners or sent waste to the site are now in the early phases of cleaning it up.
In a few weeks, they’ll be doing various fieldwork that the EPA will oversee.
The data collected will allow them to design a landfill to eventually build on-site to put a majority of the solid waste into.
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“We’re excited to be out here. This is a really important first step to be able to have the construction work move forward, " Jenny Polster, U.S. EPA remedial project manager said.
The EPA has been working with Clark County Combined Health District to figure out the next steps in the “complicated” remedy.
Clark County Health Commissioner Charles Patterson said studying the data is important, and they are years away from actual cleanup being started.
“We’re several years away yet from actual remedial action occurring. But we want them to take their time and do this right because we want to make sure that the aquifers protected during the remedial action and after we want to make sure that the residents are protected,” Charles Patterson, health commissioner for Clark County Combined Health said.
Some residents were concerned about how cleanup efforts will impact the aquifer that pumps millions of gallons of water a day and is used by most of the county.
Something Patterson said health officials and the EPA have not taken lightly
“That’s why we’re so excited here that we’re taking the next step. Because the sooner we get these barrels out, the sooner we get the right resources put in place to ensure that none of these chemicals affect our underground water supply,” he said.
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Patterson said work will likely be started in 2025 or 2026.
Laura Kaffenbarger lived up the road from the landfill for over 40 years and moved out of the area around five years ago.
“I’m very concerned about the water and the air in our areas, particularly, as they clean this up, what you know that the water, our aquifer will not be affected. And I’ve seen a lot of different tests in the past as shown contamination. And I just want to make sure that it’s done properly,” Kaffenbarger said.
She said the talks about cleanup efforts this time around seem more promising.
“I think they’re going to be very careful. In the past, it hasn’t been that way,” she said.
The design process could take a couple of years, then the agency will know when it can start moving the waste from the site.
We will continue following this story and update any developments in the cleanup effort.
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