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By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Sunday, Aug 19, 2007
COPLEY TWP.: Eugene Smith is frustrated. He wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pay for hooking his house up to city of Akron drinking water.
Nearly 13 years ago, the federal agency installed devices in Smith's home and seven neighboring houses in Copley Township with polluted wells to remove toxic chemicals from the drinking water.
That was to be a temporary fix. But Smith and five of his neighbors are still relying on the cleansing devices.
Smith, 79, drinks the well water from his tap. On doctor's orders, his wife, Rita, drinks only bottled water.
Repeated tests have shown that the water coming from Smith's tap is safe. But he finds it unsettling to count on the $1,600 system of air strippers and carbon filters to clean the drinking water 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
If his and his neighbors' homes were hooked up to Akron's lines, it would ensure they were getting safe drinking water, Smith said.
''It would be the best thing to do all the way around,'' he said.
''There aren't many of us, and we're stuck . . . and that's frustrating for everyone around here. We have no power, no clout.''
And Smith points out that connecting to Akron water something that would cost about $8,000 per house, depending on the width of the property would save the government money.
According to Mike Bolas and Rod Beals, spokesmen for the Ohio EPA, the agency spends $5,000 to $10,000 a year to ensure that the water in the Copley homes is safe, although the figure had been as high as $30,000 in previous years.
3-acre pollution site
The contaminated water centers on a three-acre pollution site at the Copley Square Plaza at Copley (state Route 162) and Jacoby roads.
With only nine wells contaminated to date, the site is by no means the Ohio EPA's biggest pollution problem. But it could have been a lot worse. There are 150 residential wells within a half-mile and 2,000 people who rely on wells live within one mile of the site. That includes a school, a nursing home/rehabilitation center and apartment complexes.
And the problem has been around for 17 years.
In 1990, odors were detected in water from two wells serving a dry-cleaning shop, a hair-styling shop, a dentist's office and a grocery store in two buildings at 2777-2799 Copley Road.
The grocery company officials hired a private company to test the water and then notified the Ohio EPA that the aquifer was contaminated with volatile organic compounds.
Tenants of the plaza were ordered not to use the well water and drinking water was trucked in. The plaza later hooked into the Copley Square Water Co.
At that time, tests showed no residential wells were being polluted, although contamination was found at an indoor soccer facility north of Copley Square.
The EPA investigations into the source of the pollutants focused on the dry-cleaning shop Danton Dry Cleaners and previous dry-cleaning businesses there that dated to 1963.
In 1994, the EPA discovered toxic chemicals stored in eight homemade pits under the dry-cleaning shop.
From late 1994 to early 1995, 8,000 gallons of solvent-contaminated wastewater were removed from the pits, which were then filled with concrete. In addition, the plaza's two water wells were abandoned, and a shallow trench and sump system were built to remove contaminants from the soil and groundwater around and beneath the buildings.
At the same time, the agencies discovered contamination in nine nearby residential wells, including Smith's, off South Plainview Drive.
U.S. money recouped
The initial federal response in 1994-95 cost more than $750,000 and the U.S. EPA recouped that money from local businessman Paul D. Emery, who had owned Copley Square and a nearby golf course.
Under a federal court agreement, the land owned by Emery and by a family trust was sold, with most of the proceeds going to the federal EPA.
Emery declined to comment on his legal fight or the settlement.
The owners of Danton Cleaners filed for bankruptcy and avoided paying for the cleanup.
State and federal officials thought the pollution problem had been taken care of in 1994-95. But in 2000, the contamination was found to be spreading.
New investigation
That triggered a new investigation. Since the Ohio EPA did not have the money for a cleanup, the problem was taken over by the U.S. EPA. In 2005, the site became a part of the Superfund program, because no parties could be identified who had the ability to pay for the cleanup.
The contamination is spreading to the southeast and to the east. Levels of four toxic chemicals are high in residential and monitoring wells around Copley Square.
The type of underground geology in the area has complicated efforts to determine the extent of the contamination and its potential for spreading.
Initially, nine residential wells had pollution problems. Five additional residential wells showed low-level contamination in 2003 testing. More tests were conducted in 2006, but those have not yet been released.
The contaminated aquifer was the initial problem. But officials now fear that contaminants moving through the soil as gases might be a greater threat to residents, including those in Copley Meadows condominiums.
Sam Chummar, the federal project manager for the Superfund site, who is based in Chicago, said providing Akron water to Smith and his neighbors is one remedy being studied by the EPA, although the final analysis of the problem and suggested steps to correct it won't be released until November at the earliest.
Winning final approval for the solution will probably take until mid-2008, he said.
The agency is looking at other options, including installing a centralized system to treat the contaminated groundwater and continuing to rely on the air strippers in the houses with contaminated wells, he said.
''City water is definitely an option, but it's only one of several options,'' Chummar said. ''We have to determine what the best option is.''
Hooking up to Akron water was not an option in 1994-95 because the waterline to the area was not built until 2002. In addition, state law prohibits the Ohio EPA from making such hookups, although the federal EPA could do so.
Chummar declined to discuss specific findings of the 2006 testing, although he said the plume of contaminated groundwater appears to be stable and had not expanded significantly since tests in 2004-05.
The EPA is still wrestling with the question of whether gaseous contamination moving underground through the soil is a threat to residents of Copley Meadows, he said.
Two of Smith's neighbors, who initially had air strippers in their homes, paid to hook up to Akron water after their wells collapsed.
Russell Duty, 93, was glad to switch to Akron water even though he had to pay $7,000 for the hookup.
For years, Duty had hauled in water to avoid using the water from his tap even though it had been treated with the air stripper and carbon filters, he said.
''The water was bad, real bad,'' he said. ''It was not fit to drink and not fit to take a bath. You just couldn't use it. That just seemed to be a better thing to do.''
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
COPLEY TWP.: Eugene Smith is frustrated. He wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to pay for hooking his house up to city of Akron drinking water.
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