In the 1920s, Youngstown Sheet & Tube sponsored a series of cartoons intended to deflect responsibility for air pollution from the mills. The above cartoon depicts the "domestic smoke nuisance" emanating from the business and residential districts. Mrs. Youngstown promises to "get together to clean up". It would be funny if it weren't so insidious. (Of course, there are no energy-related companies today straight-faced pretending they bear no responsibility for obvious environmental issues, right?)
Since the closing of the bulk of the mills, air quality has improved considerably. Where once ash fell from the skies to cover homes with a thick soot, today the valley breathes easier. According to a 1997 document from the Ohio EPA, Mahoning County was meeting primary standards for "suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen and lead" while "Violations of the standards for ozone still occur. The main sources [...] are likely from automobile emmissions and from industry, primarily in the Youngstown area." However, in June of this year the Youngstown area was redesignated by the Ohio EPA as having attained the standards of the 8-hour ozone National Ambient
Air Quality Standard.
The Mahoning River, however, is another matter. Used for more than a century as a private sewer by various mining and manufacturing operations, a contact ban is in effect from at least Warren down to the state line, due to the level of harmful contaminants in the water. Just as the soot-dusted houses were perceived as a sign of prosperity, the river's pollution was dismissed "because it carries away the waste from industry, thereby providing jobs for the community and serving the best interest of the public." This statement was made by a leading local politician in protest to federal attempts to clean up the river in the mid-60s (see "Attitudes Toward the Mahoning River During the Steel Mill Era" by Dr. Lauren Schroeder in previous link). Permit me to reprint a few more items from The Mahoning River Watershed site:
1. In an early study of the river (1964), the water temperature was tested and for more than 90 days it was at/above 95 degrees.
2. If all the contaminated sediment in the Mahoning River was put into boxcars, it would form a train 38 miles long.
3. Until the mid-1960’s, there were virtually no requirements to stop pollution and, therefore, none on the Mahoning River. There were no sewage treatment plants for the major towns along the river until 1965, so raw sewage from over 600,000 Mahoning Valley residents flowed freely into the river, along with 7,000 gallons of industrial oil, etc . . .
So, what next? All navigable waterways are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Even though much of the industrial section of the Mahoning River barely fits that category, they control the cleanup project and its schedule. The first part of the process will be to identify all of the owners and/or operators of land adjacent to the river for a 31-mile stretch, determine what pollutants have been used and to what extent these individuals or entities might be liable for the pollution. For maybe five years there might be no action on the river cleanup itself.
This is actually an advantage. Those with whom I have spoken who care deeply about the river are interested in exploring innovative remediation techniques, and they're doubtful that the Corps of Engineers shares this particular enthusiasm in equal measure. We have an opportunity with the new STEM college to practice Youngstown's famous innovation, this time on solving environmental problems. Bioremediation and phytoremediation will be used to remove contaminants from the soil in the river and in neighboring brownfields. The engineers we train as a part of this research could go on to practice these techniques for the benefit of people and ecosystems bordering the Danube, Nile and Amazon, according to Sarah Lown, president of Mahoning River Consortium and director of economic development for the Eastgate Council of Regional Governments. (Special thanks to Sarah for her generous time sharing her thoughts on the river with me and to Holly Burnett-Hanley, who developed the Mahoning River Education Project, for her insights, helpful resources and devotion to the river and the community! Thanks, too, to Jack Slanina for his pointers on air quality.)
In the meantime, we will focus on the many brownfields and determining appropriate uses for them. This Friday, the Consortium will identify ten target sites actionable within a five-year period. In those five years, trees will be planted that can assist in the soil remediation, sites will be scouted for canoe launches and picnic areas and remediation done on sites with potential for economic development, either for industrial or commercial use: Friday, September 21, 2007 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Agenda - "Redevelopment Strategy for the Mahoning River Corridor" at Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, 100 E. Federal Street, Suite 1000, Youngstown.
