Fields Brook

Site Information

Ashtabula, OH (Ashtabula County)
EPA ID# OHD980614572
NPL Site Narrative
NPL Factsheet
CERCLIS listing
Alias(es): N/A

Contact Information

Community Involvement Coordinator
Susan Pastor (pastor.susan@epa.gov)
312-353-1325 or 800-621-8431, ext. 31325

Remedial Project Manager
Terese Van Donsel (vandonsel.terese@epa.gov)
312-353-6564 or 800-621-8431, ext. 36564

Ohio EPA Contact:
Sig Williams, Project Manager
330-963-1210
regan.williams@epa.state.oh.us

Repositories

(where to view written records)

Ashtabula County District Library
335 W. 44th Street
Ashtabula, OH

Kent State Library
3431 West 13th St
Ashtabula, OH

Background

Fields Brook site, located about 55 miles east of Cleveland in the city and county of Ashtabula, Ohio, is a six square-mile watershed of a brook where up to 19 separate facilities have operated since 1940. Activities range from metals-fabrication to chemicals production. Fields Brook flows into the Ashtabula River, which flows into Lake Erie approximately 1-1/2 miles downstream of the site. Fields Brook sediment and soil from the Fields Brook floodplain/wetlands area are contaminated with a wide variety of contaminants including PCBs, chlorinated solvents and metals.

Site Updates | December 2008 | October 2007 | News Releases | Fact Sheets || Technical Documents | Five-Year Reviews || "Legal Agreements

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Site Updates

Update - December 2008

A status review of the cleanup to date is starting this fall. The Superfund law requires regular reviews of sites (at least every five years) -- where the cleanup is complete or where cleanup has been ongoing for at least five years -- but hazardous waste remains managed on-site. These reviews are done to ensure that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment. In particular, EPA will be looking at the Fields Brook channel and floodplain cleanup.

This is the second five-year review. The previous review was done in June 2004.

A "five-year review report" will be completed by June 2009. Contact the site community involvement coordinator and/or the remedial project manager (links provided in Contact Information box at right) to provide public input on the review process.

A new source of PCBs was discovered in Fields Brook in late September 2007 as contaminated sediment was being excavated from the brook. This new area of contamination is a pool of heat transfer fluid that contains PCBs. The fluid may have been buried for a long time but was found during an excavation project to address localized soil and sediment contamination identified during ongoing environmental monitoring.

The Fields Brook channel has been rerouted and the Millinium Inorganic Chemical Co. has excavated sediment (mud) and soil in problem areas. An EPA emergency response team is monitoring the cleanup. Additional work in the State Road area of Fields Brook is anticipated in 2009.

EPA has ordered Millennium to do this work to remove the risk of recontaminating the nearby Ashtabula River that was recently cleaned up separately under the Great Lakes Legacy Act. Fields Brook flows into the Ashtabula River and eventually into Lake Erie.

The Fields Brook cleanup, which has been ongoing for more than 10 years, is comprised of four miles of brook and six industrial areas. Cleanup is ongoing in the area known as the Detrex Corp. facility. Two more "extraction" wells were installed in 2008 to pull out liquid containing high levels of volatile and semi-volatile contaminants such as trichloroethylene or TCE, hexachlorobenzene and hexachlorobutadiene from underneath the property. Because this liquid is so heavy, it has a tendency to sink when it enters water. An expansion to the extraction system is planned for 2009.

Contaminated areas of the Ashtabula River were addressed outside of Superfund through a program called the Great Lakes Legacy Act . That cleanup was completed in 2008.

Cleanup at the other five areas has been completed: