CANFIELD — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has approved the installation of signs in four locations near Canfield High School and the Material Sciences Corp factory to warn the public of the “potentially polluted water” in a section of Sawmill Creek and in wetlands south of the factory.

For months, documents related to the cleanup of an adjacent ditch near the MSC facility next to Canfield High School and testing of areas nearby have indicated that the factory’s consultants and the OEPA were trying to get a fence installed at the north end of the high school property along Sawmill Creek.

Early this year, the Canfield Board of Education gave permission for the fence to be installed on the school side of the creek at no expense to the school district. But the most recent filing in connection to the cleanup and investigation into the spill states that the fencing idea was found to be “not feasible due to access being denied by third parties.”

It’s not clear what third parties stood in the way of the fencing, but at least some property owners along South Briarcliff Drive on the north side of the creek have opposed the installation of a fence. One property owner said previously the creek itself is on the private property of the South Briarcliff residents.

FOUR SIGNS

A Sept. 12 document from August Mack, MSC’s environmental consultant, proposed installing four signs near the creek and wetlands just north of the factory “to limit exposure to any potential impacts in Sawmill Creek.” In the document is an “example proposed sign” that has red lettering stating “CAUTION! Potentially Polluted Water,” “Avoid Recreational Use,” and “Do Not Drink the Creek Water.”

The sign directs people to get more information at www.mscresponse.com or call 800-310-2854 for more information. The www.mscresponse.com website provides updates on the cleanup and investigation provided by the company. Dialing the 800 number will provide the caller with a recording on the cleanup and investigation.

The Sept. 12 document shows that the signs will be located just south of Sawmill Creek close to Cardinal Drive; just to the west of the high school baseball field; on a narrow right-of-way between two homes on South Briarclliff Drive on the north side of the creek; and north of a wetland north of the factory. That sign is also close to homes on Willow Bend Drive and the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway.

The signs will be 2 feet by 2 feet in size and about 4 feet high attached to posts. The signage will be visible from the south and north sides of Sawmill Creek, the document states. “Signs will remain in place until the Ohio EPA approves their removal,” it notes.

Contamination in the form of a brown liquid was first observed in a ditch next to the MSC factory by a pedestrian who was walking on the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway 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 MSC factory at 460 W. Main St. MSC has said it 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.”

CREEK TESTING

August Mack has carried out testing on portions of Sawmill Creek near South Briarcliff Drive. Soil samples from Sawmill Creek showed in February that zinc exceeded the residential EPA 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.

According to the mygeoworld.com website, EPA RSLs are used to help “identify areas, contaminants and conditions that need further … attention at a particular site.”

If the contaminants are below a certain RSL, no further action is warranted under certain conditions, the website states. An area with “chemical concentrations exceeding an RSL suggests that further evaluation of the potential risks by site contaminants is suitable.”

A July MSC document stated that additional testing done in Sawmill Creek 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.

Testing indicated no presence of dangerous chemicals on the school property, but MSC recently agreed to install additional testing wells not far from the high school property and Mill Creek MetroPark Bikeway to determine how far the Trichloroethylene groundwater “plume” found on the MSC property may extend in the direction of the school property.