YOUNGSTOWN — August Mack, the company handling cleanup of the chemical release discovered last July near the Material Sciences Corp. factory next to Canfield High School, and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency have issued two new reports on testing in Sawmill Creek and a wetland near the factory.

Canfield resident Brad Kinkade, who has been outspoken on the contamination, says he thinks the two reports show the company is trying to wrap up the cleanup as soon as possible and the Ohio EPA is trying to “put the brakes on” the cleanup.

The Vindicator last published an article on the cleanup and testing of soils and waterways near the factory June 14, quoting Dan Williamson, MSC spokesman, saying that recent testing showed no elevated levels of free cyanide, a chemical of concern as a result of the chemical release, were found in new testing of Sawmill Creek.

Williamson said the results meant that “Meander Creek Reservoir has not been impacted” by the chemical spill. August Mack had not yet provided the Ohio EPA with a final report on the testing at the time.

A short time later, on July 3, August Mack’s report on testing in Sawmill Creek and a wetland just north of the factory was released on the Ohio EPA website. It went into detail, mentioning that one of nine planned testing locations — one on Turner Road in Canfield Township — could not be used because it contained bedrock, not sediment. Also, a testing site at Kirk Road was not accessible, so a site in the Sawmill Nature Preserve nearby was used.

The results showed that levels of free cyanide in the creek were “below Ohio EPA non-drinking surface water human health criteria” and “below U.S. EPA residential and industrial” acceptable limits.

The July 3 report reiterated Williamson’s remarks that the results indicated Meander Reservoir, which is located a short distance downstream of the Sawmill Creek locations tested, “has not been impacted.” The reservoir is the drinking water source for more than 200,000 customers in the Mahoning Valley through the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

The July 3 August Mack report brought up a new issue, however, stating that August Mack was working with the Ohio EPA to conduct additional testing in Sawmill Creek “between Cardinal Drive” in Canfield and nearby Verdant Lane.

When Ohio EPA press secretary and community outreach specialist Bryant Sommerville was asked this week about August Mack’s assertion that the testing results showed the reservoir was not impacted by free cyanide from the factory, he did not answer directly but stated in an email that the goal of the testing in the creek was to “determine the nature and extent of the (chemical) release.”

He stated that Ohio EPA staff was still “reviewing (August Mack’s July 3) report. If we determine that more data is needed, sampling in Meander Creek Reservoir may be requested.”

Sommerville also addressed new soil-boring test results discussed in the July 3 August Mack report from a wetland just north of the factory, stating that because the testing showed elevated levels of hexavalent chromium, zinc and free cyanide, those results “will guide the cleanup process.”

He also explained that the reference to Cardinal Drive and Verdant Lane and additional testing there was proposed in the May 30 August Mack report and is intended to “complement” other testing done in Sawmill Creek. But doing testing is “contingent on permission of property owners.” The testing there involves sampling in the northern bank, center and southern bank of the creek at several locations.

The next document released on the Ohio EPA website was a 10-page July 16 letter the Ohio EPA wrote to August Mack/MSC called a “notice of deficiency” regarding the cleanup and sampling “workplan” August Mack provided May 30, 2025.

“Ohio EPA, Division of Environmental Response and Revitalization (DERR) has conducted a review of the … workplan and has determined it to be incomplete and technically inadequate.” The July 16 letter was addressed to Mike Cocanig, MSC chief operations officer, 460 W. Main Street in Canfield.

It asked the company to “provide a revised … workplan addressing all areas indicated in the deficiency comments to Ohio EPA for approval within 14 days of receipt of this letter.”

The letter asked MSC to provide more detail as to how it will determine the nature and extent of the chemical release from the factory. The letter mentioned that the contamination has been found close to “residences located along Sawmill Creek.”

It noted that the May 30 August Mack plan mentions that the chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) and its byproducts are the “primary site contaminants of concern. However, no wetland and Sawmill Creek samples were analyzed for TCE and degradation byproducts.”

CANFIELD HIGH SCHOOL PROPERTY

The letter states that air-vapor testing was done on the Canfield High School property east of the factory in February, “and no additional … sampling is proposed.” The testing came back negative for contaminant risks at the high school.

But monitoring wells between the factory and the high school property show high concentrations of TCE, the letter states. The letter advised MSC / August Mack that further testing is needed to be done on the high school side of the factory to determine the “extent” of the TCE contamination in that area and in a contaminated area on the west side of the factory. It stated that this would require “multiple rounds of soil gas and sub-slab samples to account for … seasonal variability in concentrations of (chemicals of concern) in ground water.”

The letter also mentioned a “crock in the basement of the galvanizing line on the west side of the factory” that “may be hydrologically connected or interacting with groundwater beneath the MSC property.” The letter asked the company to “discuss the history of MSC’s evaluation of the basement crock” by providing additional information.

The letter states that additional testing is also needed for the ditch next to the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway on the east side of the MSC property that now contains a liner and received extensive cleanup. The letter tells MSC to install a soil boring in the ditch close to the factory to evaluate “perched water.” Perched water is “groundwater occurring in a saturated zone separated from the main body of groundwater by unsaturated rock,” according to Merriam-Webster.

The letter states that even though the ditch has a liner, that “does not eliminate the need for proper assessment and remediation of soils in the ditch area.” It asks MSC to “develop a plan for further investigation of the ditch area.”

RESIDENT RESPONSE

Kinkade, who lives just south of the ditch and wetland, raised awareness of the July 2024 chemical release from MSC when he spoke to Canfield City Council a couple of months after the release was discovered. Kinkade has monitored the documents related to the cleanup on the Ohio EPA website.

When Kinkade was asked about the July 16 Ohio EPA letter, he said he thinks it shows “how much more needs done and potentially needs done” to evaluate and clean up the contamination.

He said it appears that MSC and August Mack are working hard to get to the final stages of the cleanup. But with this letter, the OEPA is “putting the brakes on them.” He expressed his support for the move.

Kinkade said he has been “really disappointed with the entire process” up to this point, saying “I don’t know who’s at fault in all this, but I know with 100% certainty whose fault it isn’t, and that’s the community and the residents in the city of Canfield.”

He said the Ohio EPA said at a public hearing in February that cleanup of the contamination would follow a seven-step process. Kinkade said he thinks MSC officials thought they were “well on their way” to completing the seven steps, but the Ohio EPA “reminded them” that the process is still in the early stages.

“For all intents and purposes, we are still at the second phase that the EPA defined in the February forum,” Kinkade stated in a text message.

He said the July 16 letter suggests that the Ohio EPA is broadening its recent focus on the chemical TCE to other chemicals such as hexavalent chromium, arsenic and other heavy metals.

He said the Ohio EPA is “basically reminding MSC they are responsible for the entire laundry list (of contaminants), and it’s a long one.” He said he thinks the Ohio EPA is saying that just because some test results have shown no contamination in areas such as the high school property, “there is an opportunity for the chemicals of concern to migrate. So these areas must be monitored continually.”