Report Grades Dayton & Montgomery Counties On Environmental Livability

The Environmental Livability Report Card for Dayton and Montgomery Counties released today by Environmental Defense and Ohio Citizen Action assigns the counties a C- grade for industrial pollution, and a D for efforts to clean up contaminated sites, such as Superfund and Brownfield sites. Click here to read the reports.

Industrial Pollution Grade: C-
Toxic chemical releases increased at the 54 facilities that reported for 1997 and 1998. Likewise, the amount of hazardous waste created by local businesses shot up beginning in 1993 and has remained high ever since. The electric utility and hazardous waste treatment industries, both of which first reported in 1998, had the highest levels of toxic chemical releases in Ohio.

“Dayton and Montgomery County should take an example from its neighbor, Cincinnati, which has implemented a far-reaching pollution prevention program that has succeeded in reducing toxic releases by over 70% between 1991 and 1997,” said Carol Andress, economic specialist for Environmental Defense. “An aggressive local prevention program is especially important because of shortcomings in the state enforcement and cleanup of contaminated properties.”

Cleanup Needs Grade: D
The Dayton/Montgomery County area has 63 properties that are known, or suspected to be contaminated, such as Superfund and Brownfield sites. The City of Dayton’s program to protect its groundwater from such contamination is outstanding, but inadequacies in the state enforcement and cleanup of contaminated properties undermine Dayton’s efforts. Problems at the state level include: (1) over reliance on voluntary cleanup by site owners; (2) new state rules for leaking underground storage tanks that allow for less cleanup in certain areas; and (3) lack of an aggressive effort to identify potentially contaminated sites. Many more sites in the county may need cleanup or are already being cleaned up, but because of lax state rules, these sites remain secret from the state, city, and the public.

“Ohio EPA takes a backseat to cleaning up contaminated properties—neither actively identifying, enforcing, or cleaning up sites,” stated Jane Forrest Redfern, environmental projects director for Ohio Citizen Action. “Hazardous waste treatment facilities are a big problem—these are some of the largest emitters of toxic chemicals in the state and many are designated as priority cleanups. Yet the state relies on the owners to ‘voluntarily’ cleanup their own messes. The state needs a real cleanup program that addresses the public’s right-to-know about contamination in their neighborhood, and provides for adequate government oversight, and permanent cleanups.”

“We recognize that the City of Dayton has provided leadership on cleaning up contaminated sites in the well field area, but more needs to be done by the city and county to clean up other sites,” said Andress.