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Agency suggests site changes to protect Twinsburg streams
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Friday, Sep 12, 2008
It might take a costly parking garage and a relocated building to pave the way for a multi-million dollar medical center to become a reality in Twinsburg.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency remains very concerned about the effects of a proposed Cleveland Clinic Foundation facility on wetlands and streams.
In a Tuesday letter to clinic officials, EPA Director Chris Korleski said the effects of the development on ground water, rare cold-water streams and wetlands on the 86-acre site off Darrow Road (state Route 91) south of Interstate 480 remain the EPA's No. 1 concern with the project.
The clinic wants to build a $71.5 million outpatient medical center and 24-hour emergency room on the site. The four-story, 168,500-square-foot facility, to be called the Cleveland Clinic Twinsburg Family Health and Surgery Center, could open in late 2009. It would create 300 jobs. In-patient care could be added in the future.
The clinic needs approval from the Ohio EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to fill in wetlands and small streams.
Korleski said he has ''serious concerns with the clinic's preferred site plan footprint'' because of its ''potentially significant environmental impacts.''
It is possible that the clinic's preferred site development might ''not be a feasible option for this project,'' he said.
EPA rules disallow any project that will degrade waters.
But Korleski said he was confident that ''there are potential options that can allow the project to move forward, while preserving the unique habitat and water quality characteristics associated with the site.''
Clinic spokeswoman Heather Phillips said the hospital is ''working closely with the Ohio EPA to substantially reduce the impact on streams and wetlands and to increase the nature conservancy.
''We have developed further initiatives that demonstrate the Cleveland Clinic's continued commitment to environmental integrity, which we plan on sharing with the Ohio EPA next week, and we are optimistic that this will be resolved.''
The possibility of wetland problems with the site surfaced last month when the EPA said it had ''significant concerns.'' The agency was not satisfied with the clinic's plans to protect high-quality wetlands and rare cold-water springs that feed small streams that drain to nearby Tinkers Creek.
Korleski noted that the Twinsburg project also has come under scrutiny from the Corps of Engineers, the U.S. EPA and other parties.
The Ohio EPA intends to continue working with the clinic in an effort to minimize the effects to streams and wetlands, Korleski said.
The clinic and its consultants want to show that its preferred development option would not affect ground water, he said, but that won't be easy to do.
In his six-page letter, Korleski said the clinic has agreed to consider alternative building/parking locations, along with new methods of storm-water management and different foundation construction.
A parking garage, instead of surface lots, could help minimize effects on the site's streams and wetlands.
If the clinic were to build a parking garage and move the main building closer to state Route 91, the project could proceed without EPA wetland approval, Korleski said, and the agency would work with the hospital to develop best-management practices to minimize effects on water.
But, to date, clinic officials have been reluctant to change their plans, he noted.
In his letter, Korleski also ruled that one of the wetlands is a high-quality one. That will require additional compliance steps by the clinic.
The site also contains rare, high-quality, headwater streams that need to be protected, he wrote.
Korleski said it will be ''very difficult, if not impossible, to find acceptable compensatory mitigation for the loss of these water resources.''
Officially, the clinic is seeking EPA approval to fill in 3.14 acres of wetlands and 4,335 feet of streams.
It intends to preserve 33 acres of wetlands and forests through a conservation easement that might be held by a third-party agency such as Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.
The clinic also would pay to restore a section of Pond Brook, a stream in eastern Twinsburg that flows into Tinkers Creek.
The EPA's Twinsburg office will make a recommendation to Korleski on whether the clinic should be granted what's called a 401 water quality certificate. The final decision for issuing it rests with Korleski.
The clinic needs state approval before it can seek approval for the project from the Corps of Engineers.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
It might take a costly parking garage and a relocated building to pave the way for a multi-million dollar medical center to become a reality in Twinsburg.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Sterling, Oh
Posted 12:28 PM, 09/12/2008
EPA bureaucrats not concerned about patients paying for the more stock dividends (money) Money Marketers market quarterly in the wholesale and retail price of every product and service needed to build, maintain, and operate this new clinic, with money derived from wages or independent business profit.
