CANFIELD — The next phase of testing of areas that may have been contaminated by chemicals released from the factory next to Canfield High School last summer will include nine locations along Sawmill Creek to the north of the school.

An April 30 document states that the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has given the go-ahead to testing in the creek as far north as Kirk Road in Austintown near Meander Reservoir and in a wetland just north of the factory.

The reservoir, which is downstream of the factory, provides drinking water to 220,000 Mahoning Valley Sanitary District customers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

A pedestrian observed a brown liquid in the ditch alongside the Mill Creek Bikeway in Canfield on July 11, 2024, and reported it. That led to a response by Canfield firefighters and others and the Ohio EPA determining the fluid came from the Material Sciences Corp. factory just west of the ditch.

MSC, 460 W. Main St., posted recently on a website it created that MSC was conducting routine power washing inside the plant July 1 to July 8, 2024, and water from the work “caused historic contamination in the groundwater and / or in abandoned stormwater piping beneath the surface of the facility to enter the ditch through a stormwater pipe.”

THE TESTING

August Mack Environmental, the company hired by MSC to manage its response to the leak, described the upcoming testing in its April 18 Wetland and Downstream Sawmill Creek Sampling Work Plan available on the Ohio EPA documents website.

The document states that August Mack will collect 19 soil, sediment and surface water samples from the stream and wetland at the request of the Ohio EPA.

“This scope of work is intended to characterize impacts and address potential data gaps in the wetland and provide a broad overview of conditions in Sawmill Creek,” the document states. “The data collected from this work plan will be incorporated into the overall remedial strategy for the site and be used to determine if additional sampling is necessary to further evaluate the site impacts.”

The MSC site is a “metal galvanizing and coil coating facility” that MSC acquired in 2013, the document states, noting that the brown liquid observed “was believed to be associated with cleaning and pressure washing activities conducted during a routine facility shutdown.”

It states that “discharges from that incident were contained and collected. However, during the response efforts associated with the July 2024 release, residual impacts from historic facility operations were discovered in soil, surface water, sediment and groundwater at multiple locations in and around the site.

“MSC was issued a notice of violation from the Ohio EPA in October 2024, and the Director’s Final Findings and Orders were effective Dec. 2024,” the document adds. The site continues to undergo “corrective” measures, it notes. Remediation work involving the use of heavy equipment in the ditch was observed starting last year.

Initial investigations of the environment near the factory produced results that were submitted to the Ohio EPA on Dec. 9. They showed “soil / sediment impacts above (U.S. EPA allowable levels) throughout the wetland and in certain areas downstream,” the MSC document states. Surface water samples showed that “contaminants of concern” had migrated to areas off of MSC property but were “below nondrinking surface water human health criteria.”

The additional testing in the creek and wetlands are meant to “further delineate the impacts in soil / sediment and further investigate surface water conditions within the wetland and Sawmill Creek,” it states. The wetland is located at the north end of the ditch.

WETLANDS LOCATION

The wetland also is located near homes on Willow Bend Drive and a section of Sawmill Creek that travels easterly toward the northernmost part of the Canfield High School property, where baseball and soccer fields are located along South Briarcliff Drive.

Earlier August Mack documents indicated that contamination was found in parts of Sawmill Creek just south of South Briarcliff Drive, as well as near the bike trail.

But testing done in mid-February in several areas of the western part of the high school property near the wrestling / weight room and parking lot did not show elevated levels of hazardous chemical levels such as trichloroethylene, a March 31, 2025, August Mack document indicated.

The new August Mack work plan states the new samples will be taken from Sawmill Creek at eight locations in Canfield and Canfield Township, ranging from Cardinal Drive near the high school to areas close to Glenview Road, Sleepy Hollow Drive, Camelot Court, Herbert Road, the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway near Topaz Trail, an area near South Turner Road and one area in Austintown along Kirk Road at Sawmill Creek near Whispering Pines Drive.

Among the chemicals August Mack will test for in the wetlands are total cyanide, free cyanide, zinc and hexavalent chromium, the document states. Among the chemicals August Mack will test for in surface water samples collected in the creek are total cyanide and free cyanide, it states.

“Data collected from this wetland and creek work plan will be provided in an upcoming status report following implementation and receipt of laboratory data,” the document states.

SANITARY DISTRICT RESPONSE

MVSD officials have said they do not believe there is any reason for concern that the chemicals migrated downstream as far as the Meander Reservoir, which is 3.6 miles north of the MSC facility.

Scott Verner, MVSD chief engineer, said last month that MVSD “never really did anticipate any problems with that.” He noted that not only is MSC 3.6 miles from the southern end of the reservoir, but MSC is 9 miles from the water intake at Mineral Ridge, where water from the reservoir is collected and treated for use by its customers.

Tom Holloway, MVSD plant operations manager, said this week that when chemicals are released into a ditch, “they will usually settle out rather quickly in the ditch unless you have a really substantial amount of flow while that is occurring. It usually settles out in the sediment. That’s where you will find it.”

Holloway said he spoke with a member of Canfield City Council just before the Feb. 3 public meeting at Canfield High School, where officials from the city, Ohio EPA, August Mack, MSC, Cardinal Joint Fire District and others talked about the leak and answered questions.

Holloway said he told the council member the spill was “such a far distance to the (Meander) Reservoir” and said, “We have not detected anything of concern here.”

Holloway said he told the council member, “It would have to come a long way to us,” and “We have done testing for years, and there is no indication of a high level.”

Holloway said, “We have 11 billion gallons of water sitting out there in a 7-milelong reservoir. You might never see it. It might end up in the sediments at the south end of the reservoir.”

He added that MVSD monitors not only the reservoir with water samples but also major creeks in the area, and “There has been no indication” of any contamination.

He said he believes that the Ohio EPA would notify MVSD if there was anything for MVSD to be concerned about, and the Ohio EPA had not notified MVSD.

When the Ohio EPA was asked about it, Bryant Somerville, the department’s press secretary responded by email that “There is no indication the MSC release has gotten into the drinking water provided by the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

“It’s also worth mentioning the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District monitors the water quality at its intake to determine the necessary water treatment methods to deliver safe drinking water.”

OHIO EPA

When contacted in early April about the testing that had been done at Canfield High School, Somerville said the agency’s director issued Final Findings and Orders on Jan. 7 “that require MSC to clean up any contamination.”

He stated that “MSC developed and implemented a plan to better understand the extent of the aftermath, including the volatile organic compound trichloroethylene in groundwater both on and off site and vapor intrusion at the school buildings.”

He stated that the “vapor intrusion sample results from the school buildings show no detections above standards. VOCs were not detected in the groundwater under the high school property. However, in two of the five groundwater samples along the eastern side of the bike path, there were results that showed higher than normal standards.”

He stated that “MSC is required to follow the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act process, which will include additional sampling and cleanup. MSC also is required to submit monthly reports that review the completed tasks and next step tasks.” He noted that the reports are available on the Ohio EPA documents website.