The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided on the company that will oversee a $9.2 million environmental cleanup effort at a former steel factory in Sharon, Pa, the Corps announced in a press release Friday.
Cape Environmental Management, Inc., of Norcross, Ga., will install measures to protect the nearby environment and contain hazardous materials in the cleanup of the former Sharon Steel Farrell Works factory. The old factory, once a steel refinery, is on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of Superfund Sites, the most polluted areas in the country. Environmental issues on Superfund sites typically take years and cost millions of dollars to address.
The Sharon project is projected to last roughly two and a half years. As part of the project, Cape Environmental Management will excavate waste materials and take steps to protect nearby wetlands.
“The district is looking forward to leveraging our expertise in contracting and construction management to help the EPA with this project,” Col. Andrew Short, commander of the Army Corps’ Pittsburgh District, wrote in the release. “The cleanup of this site is a great example of inter-agency collaboration and cooperation.”
This news comes as Sharon is attempting to grapple with the environmental legacy of its industrial past. A few miles to the north, hazardous chemicals have leached from another EPA Superfund site — a former Westinghouse plant — into the nearby Shenango River, causing the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and a few other state agencies to issue a “do not eat” order for fish caught along a stretch of the waterway. As the city tries to foster an economic resurgence in the wake of the collapse of steel, past environmental problems could pose obstacles.
Environmental issues at the Sharon Steel site stem in large part from waste that accumulated at the factory. From 1949 to 1981, the plant disposed of waste liquids at the factory. Even after the DEP ordered the company to stop doing this, Sharon Steel still stockpiled slag, a byproduct of steel refining, at the site until the plant’s closure in 1992. Some types of slag can be toxic.
Currently, health risks from the site stem primarily from exposure to windborne dust, according to the EPA. The remedial actions will address this issue, the Army Corps wrote.
Caroline S. Engelmayer: cengelmayer@post-gazette.com or on Twitter @cengelmayer13.
First Published: August 3, 2018, 9:19 p.m.