Staff photo / Ed Runyan Roger and Janet Wilson of South Briarcliff Drive in Canfield have been closely involved with the chemical spill in July 2024 at the Material Sciences Corp. factory near Canfield High School because Sawmill Creek, which tested positive for hazardous chemicals in late 2024, is in their backyard.

CANFIELD — Roger and Janet Wilson have had a closer connection than most people in Canfield to the Material Sciences Corp. chemical spill that fouled a ditch, wetland and a tributary of Sawmill Creek in July 2024.

Not only does Sawmill Creek run through their back yard on South Briarcliff Drive just north of Canfield High School, but Roger actually took photos of the dark brown liquid in the creek July 11, 2024, the same day a pedestrian on the Mill Creek MetroPark Bikeway discovered dark liquid in a ditch next to the MSC factory and reported it to authorities. The creek is a short distance north and downstream from the ditch.

The following May, after preliminary investigations of groundwater, soil and other areas of concern near the factory, workers showed up behind Wilson’s house and began working to install a fence around the creek.

The Wilsons and other neighbors approached the workers and said, “Whoa,” Janet recalls. The Wilsons contacted their attorneys, who contacted the attorneys for August Mack, the environmental consulting company working on evaluating and cleaning up the contamination, and work was stopped.

“They were putting the fence posts on the property owners’ property. So it just came to a screeching halt,” she said during an interview last week. In addition to the workers not having permission to install the fence, it was “hideous,” Roger said. “It was a 10-foot silver fence.”

The couple says everyone on South Briarcliff Drive owns the land in the creek and an additional 20 to 22 feet on the other side of the creek. For instance, part of the high school baseball field is on the Wilsons’ property, Roger said. “Many years ago, they decided to put the ball diamond on our property,” he said.

Roger said the plan to install fencing has now apparently been abandoned. Last year, several signs were installed instead warning people of “potentially polluted water.”

Roger said, “The EPA said we need something to tell people there is danger in the creek.” Janet said it was concerning to her that it took so long for anyone to alert the public to the danger of coming into contact with the creek.

Kids from the neighborhood have played in the creek for many years, and soccer fields are on the edge of the creek, they said.

“The soccer balls go in the creek every Saturday afternoon,” Roger said of soccer season. Janet said she and Roger took a walk on a spring morning in 2025, and they could see that soccer games were taking place in the football stadium instead of next to the creek.

Roger said it took much longer to play the soccer games in the stadium because they could not play as many games in the stadium at the same time as near the creek. Later in 2025, the games returned to the area near the creek. The fence posts that had been installed near the creek were removed, Roger said.

The couple said they have concerns about the work MSC might do in the creek because it would likely involve heavy equipment being brought in that would “mow down” the vegetation in and along the creek bank similar to what was done in the ditch beside the factory.

The couple said they feared the work would kill the wildlife and diminish the value of the properties on South Briarcliff. Roger said there are chemicals “beyond safe levels” in the creek, though a report August Mack gave them in January indicated that the chemicals in their part of the creek are at safe levels.

They provided a copy of the August Mack letter, which stated that soil on their property was tested at four depths. The testing was looking for total cyanide, free cyanide, hexavalent chromium and zinc.

“Results from the samples collected from your backyard during this event were below US EPA 2025 Residential Screening Levels, which are the agreed-upon standard with Ohio EPA,” the Jan. 16, 2025, letter states.

MSC provided the couple with more data on what the results showed, but they are still looking for help from someone to interpret the information in the results.

A Vindicator interpretation of the data is that the results were below acceptable levels for all but zinc, which were listed at between 61 and 79 at the four depths tested with the highest number being associated with the testing closest to the surface.

Janet said she was told that zinc is “naturally occurring,” meaning not a result of chemicals escaping from the MSC plant.

An 2005 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry document states, “If you are exposed to zinc, many factors will determine whether you will be harmed. These factors include the dose (how much), the duration (how long), and how you come in contact with it. You must also consider any other chemicals you are exposed to and your age, sex, diet, family traits, lifestyle, and state of health.”

It states that “Zinc is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust. Zinc is found in the air, soil, and water and is present in all foods.” It adds that “Metallic zinc has many uses in industry. A common use for zinc is to coat steel and iron as well as other metals to prevent rust and corrosion; this process is called galvanization.”

The facilities at the MSC factory location have been used as a “metal galvanizing and (metal) coating facility since the early 1950s,” a recent MSC report on the spill states.

NEIGHBORS

Roger said the South Briarcliff neighbors worked with a local law firm on issues related to testing in the creek on their properties and the fence, but the law firm suggested bringing on another law firm more experienced in environmental issues at more cost. The Wilsons did not want to do that.

The firm negotiated a modified site-access agreement with August Mack last year that allowed for testing August Mack conducted in December in the creek area along Briarcliff Drive. The negotiation began in February 2025 and was complete at the end of October 2025, the Wilsons said.

Janet said it took so long because of issues to iron out regarding how the cleanup would take place in the creek. Roger said the cleanup will require heavy equipment, such as backhoes.

“The only way they can [clean up the creek] is they gotta put backhoes on people’s property — on the school’s property and on other people’s property. They can’t just take a backhoe down the center of the creek. So to fix all of this, they have got to put backhoes on our property, they’ve got to rip out trees.” Roger said he thinks it will be “ugly,” like the ditch beside the Mill Creek MetroParks Bikeway.

Roger said he hopes he can find another law firm to continue to prevent August Mack from carrying out that type of remediation. He wants the work to be “minimal” so that the natural quality of the creek remains.

Janet noted that the high school has a narrow easement that runs from the creek to the south between their home and their next door neighbor that is used by people walking to and from the high school and the neighborhood north of the high school. One of the signs warning people of potentially polluted water in the creek is on that easement.

Janet has concerns that if the school gives August Mack permission to enter that easement, August Mack might use it to park heavy equipment. And whatever work is done in the creek “is going to have to involve the property owners” like them, she said.

Janet said one reason residents are concerned is that when the spill was first detected, city officials did not “reach out to the residents to let us know what was going on.”

The Wilsons first found workers from August Mack taking samples in the creek in October 2024. Roger said the workers thought they were on school property because they were cutting bushes down. Roger informed them that the Briarcliff residents owned the creek, he said.

Roger said the residents now have to decide what they want to do next legally. Roger said his goal is to seek damages from MSC for the diminishment of the value of their property because of the contamination.

“If anyone on this street would try to sell their house today, there is a box you have to check,” Janet said of the contamination found in the creek.

WILDLIFE

The Wilsons said they are aware a study of the fish and other creatures in Sawmill Creek was completed recently further downstream from their property heading toward the Meander Reservoir. The results suggested fish are doing OK.

But they are convinced the contamination affected the wildlife on their property and other natural areas closer to the spill.

“There’s no fish left in there,” Roger said of the parts of the creek near his home. “There used to be crawfish in there. There used to be blue herons that would come and land in the creek and eat the fish. The fish are gone. The herons are gone.”

Roger said in earlier years they got a lot of deer in their yard. But now they cross the bridge. They don’t drop in the creek anymore. So they are staying away from the water.”

He said he also wonders whether the contamination is why a pair of mallards that had been coming to the creek near their home for a couple of months every year for close to a decade have not entered the creek in the past couple of years.

“Normally we would see them walk out of the creek into our back yard,” Roger said. “I even cleared off a path so that they could walk up,” Janet said. They named them George and Gracie.

Roger said he has lived in his home on Briarcliff since the 1970s and never recalled seeing any dark liquid in the creek before that day in July 2024. Roger said when he took walks along the bike trail months later, after the spill was discovered, he still saw brown water near the bike trail.

Janet said they and the other neighbors along Sawmill Creek have taken it upon themselves to “police” the creek to stop people from entering it.

“We would see kids go in there and say ‘Hey, get out of there,'” Janet said.

The couple said youth soccer games were still played on the high school property next to the creek last summer, though temporary netting was installed behind the soccer goals to stop the soccer balls from going into the creek. No cleanup has taken place yet in the creek, they said.

They said a neighbor is a coach of the Canfield High School baseball team, and they told him he should not let his players chase baseballs into the creek anymore, and he stopped them from doing that. “Everybody on this street knows about this stuff,” Roger said.

RECENT AND FUTURE REPORTS

The Vindicator reported last month on a new report from August Mack called a Corrective Action Framework that provided a useful summary of the testing done since late 2024 as a result of the chemical spill.

It provided information on where the project is headed in 2026, including the expected release of an investigatory document mid-2026 and a Corrective Measures Study in late 2026.

The Vindicator asked the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which is overseeing the investigation into the chemical spill and its cleanup, for some “general comments” on what types of contaminants are still in the environment near the factory and how long the cleanup might take.

OEPA Spokesman Bryant Somerville responded, “So far, we have worked to contain the cyanide release and prevent further contamination. Ohio EPA has completed interim measures and collected data to understand the extent of contamination. The purpose of the (Corrective Action Framework) is to summarize the goals and expectations of Ohio EPA and MSC that will facilitate any additional investigation, interim measures, etc.”

He stated, “In 2026, the next steps in the cleanup process will be to complete the (investigation of the contamination) which will document the complete nature and extent of the spill. After (that investigation) is complete, remedies for any remaining pollution from the spill will be considered. As for the overall cleanup, the … process is extensive and is deemed complete only after an investigation, cleanup, and, if applicable, long-term monitoring,” he stated.

“While MSC is responsible for cleaning all areas that were impacted by the spill, Ohio EPA continues to review data concerning pollution that might potentially remain. This information will be documented in the investigatory RFI.”

RFI stands for RCRA Facility Investigation with RCRA standing for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The RCRA “gives the EPA authority to control hazardous waste from the “cradle to the grave,” according to the www.epa.gov web site.

“This includes the generation, transportation, treatment, storage and disposal of hazardous waste. To achieve this, EPA develops regulations, guidance and policies that ensure the safe management and cleanup of solid and hazardous waste, and programs that encourage source reduction and beneficial reuse,” it states.