CANFIELD — If the size of the document is any indication, the Material Sciences Corp. and its environmental consultant, August Mack, is taking seriously the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent instructions on how to best manage cleanup of the chemical release last summer near Canfield High School.

Earlier testing indicated no presence of dangerous chemicals on the school property.

August Mack submitted a 1,217-page letter to the OEPA on Aug. 13 that responded to its July 16 Notice of Deficiency letter, which said MSC’s May 30 “workplan” was “incomplete and technically inadequate.”

The EPA’s Division of Environmental Response and Revitalization told MSC to even change the way MSC presents its documents in the future, such as leaving in the old MSC language that is being corrected but showing it in “overstrike” mode instead of removing the old language.

TESTING NEAR HIGH SCHOOL

As for contamination testing, it asked MSC to discuss whether it will conduct further testing near the Canfield High School property because of the TCE findings in groundwater just to the east of the factory on the high school side and TCE findings just to the west of the factory.

The OEPA asked MSC / August Mack to further examine how far the “plume” of Trichloroethylene may have migrated from two monitoring wells — one on the west side of the factory and two on the east side of the factory not far from the high school property that showed elevated TCE levels.

MSC / August Mack responded that “additional wells” will be installed on the west side of the factory and “southeast” of two existing monitoring wells located a fairly short distance northwest of the high school’s wrestling/weightlifting/locker room. The wells are on the west side of the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway, not the school side of the Bikeway.

“Depending on the groundwater results of the expanded monitoring well network, further … assessments may be necessary, which will be guided by groundwater plume extents,” the MSC / August Mack document states.

The diagrams included with the MSC / August Mack response do not appear to show the locations where the additional monitoring wells will be installed.

TCE

OEPA also noted in its deficiency letter that the MSC workplan states that TCE is a “primary site contaminant of concern,” but “no wetland and Sawmill Creek samples were analyzed for TCE.”

The MSC response to the EPA states that MSC / August Mack collected 79 soil samples along the adjacent ditch alongside the factory and Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway.

They were done to focus on the centerline and east / west banks of the ditch and that “no TCE was detected in any of the adjacent ditch samples. Furthermore, 21 soil borings with over 50 soil samples at varying depths were collected” on the factory property, the response states.

“Out of all of these soil samples, only two locations demonstrated evidence of TCE contamination.” It stated that “Given the lack of TCE … in Adjacent Ditch soil samples, the need for further (testing) downstream in the wetland and Sawmill Creek are not warranted,” the company countered.

“Based on the analytical results and the fine-grained silts and clays that have been documented throughout the Site, August Mack believes that the TCE contamination is limited to the deeper groundwater interval (approximately 20 feet below grade), which

is limited in reach and sufficiently defined to eliminate the wetland and Sawmill Creek from additional TCE sampling.”

The wetland mentioned in the documents relate to the cleanup and investigation of contamination in a wetland at the north end of the adjacent ditch that has received extensive cleanup since last year.

The wetland is also north of the factory, near Sawmill Creek, which is also downstream from the ditch and the chemical contamination that leaked from the factory.

FIRST DISCOVERED

The contamination was first discovered July 11, 2024, when a person on the MetroParks Bikeway noticed brown fluid in the ditch next to the Bikeway. A fence was later installed to prevent people from getting into the adjacent ditch.

It was reported in February that soil samples from Sawmill Creek just north of Canfield High School showed that zinc exceeded the residential residential Regional Screening Levels in six samples, hexavalent chromium exceeded the residential RSLs in six samples and total cyanide exceeded the residential RSLs in 52 samples.

MSC reported at the time that since July 2024, August Mack had taken about 329 samples, including 24 from groundwater, 79 from soil and four from surface water in the ditch, 47 from soil and two from surface water at a surface water location south of the factory, and 69 from soil and three from water in Sawmill Creek.

SAWMILL CREEK

A new August Mack document in July stated that additional testing done in Sawmill Creek, this time north of Canfield High School moving in the direction of Austintown and the Meander Reservoir, 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 remarks from MSC’s spokesman, Dan Williamson, that the testing showed that Meander Reservoir “has not been impacted” by the MSC spill.

The reservoir is the drinking water source for more than 200,000 customers in the Mahoning Valley through the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

At that time, The Vindicator asked OEPA spokesman Bryant Sommerville about Williamson’s statements about Sawmill Creek testing, and he did not answer directly, but said the goal of the testing in the creek north of Canfield High School in the direction of Austintown was to “determine the nature and extent of the (chemical) release.” He stated that “If we determine that more data is needed, sampling in Meander Creek Reservoir may be requested.”

Sommerville noted that additional testing in several locations in Sawmill Creek in the area of Cardinal Drive and nearby Verdant lane just northeast of Canfield High School mentioned by August Mack is “contingent on permission of property owners.”

PROPER NAMES

The OEPA also stated in its July Notice of Deficiency that the May 30, 2025, MSC / August Mack workplan gave vague mention of the Canfield High School property and Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway and failed to “adequately describe the geographic location of these areas.”

August Mack revised its workplan in its new document to call it “Canfield High School” and “CHS” instead of “the high school” and “Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway” instead of the “bikeway.”

A July 19, 2025, Vindicator story about the ongoing MSC spill cleanup and investigation quoted Brad Kinkade, who lives near the wetland, adjacent ditch and Sawmill Creek.

Kinkade said the OEPA Notice of Deficiency suggested that the OEPA wanted to ensure that the cleanup did not end before it had been fully completed and expressed his support for the idea. He said he felt that MSC thought it was “well on their way” to completing the cleanup, but the OEPA ‘s Notice of Deficiency “reminded” MSC that the cleanup is still in its early stages.

LONG HAUL

MSC’s Williamson responded in an email to The Vindicator by stating that “This weekend’s story included suggestions that MSC is hoping to rush or prematurely wrap up the cleanup process, which is not the case.”

He said, “As much as we’d love this to be completed yesterday, we know it is going to be a long haul and have been very open with the community about that.

“Ohio EPA has done a great job keeping this process moving and sharing their feedback on MSC’s work plans, and we look forward to our continued work with them and the Canfield community,” he stated.

Meanwhile, MSC posted an update recently on a website it created regarding MSC’s response to the chemical release.

It states that the MSC submitted the May 30 workplan to address additional subsurface investigations at the facility, adjacent ditch, in Sawmill Creek, and along the bike path. Since then, Ohio EPA and MSC have met regularly to refine the scope of the investigation, and MSC submitted a revised workplan … for final review and approval. Additional investigations should begin within a few weeks of Ohio EPA approval.

It added that MSC “has conducted Ohio EPA-required wetland and downstream Sawmill Creek sampling. Results of this investigation will allow the Ohio EPA and MSC to focus any necessary future investigation, risk assessment or remedial approaches to targeted areas.”

It added that “Interim Measure efforts to address impacts in the adjacent ditch are near completion, including the final installation of the liner, recovery systems and ancillary support infrastructure, and is anticipated to be complete this month.

“The purpose of the Ditch Interim Measure is to limit impacts to stormwater flowing through the ditch adjacent to MSC and downstream to Sawmill Creek. MSC will continue to operate and maintain the Interim Measure as required by Ohio EPA until no longer necessary. ”

And it stated that “In response to community feedback regarding fencing considerations along Sawmill Creek (north of Canfield High School), MSC and Ohio EPA are pursuing an alternative approach to limit access. Rather than a fence, the proposed alternative approach includes the posting of signage adjacent to Sawmill Creek near the northern boundary of the Canfield High School property line.”

It concluded that “This approach has been reviewed with Ohio EPA, the Canfield Local School District and the Mahoning County Health Department. MSC is working with the City of Canfield to ensure all proper zoning and permit requirements associated with signage are met before a final plan is sent to Ohio EPA for approval. Posting of signage will begin after all necessary zoning and Ohio EPA approvals are in place.”