Fields Brook

Site Information

Ashtabula, OH (Ashtabula County)
EPA ID# OHD980614572
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
Owen Thompson (thompson.owen@epa.gov)
312-886-4843 or 800-621-8431, ext. 64843

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 | News Releases | Fact Sheets || Technical Documents | Five-Year Reviews | Legal Agreements

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Site Updates

September 2015

EPA has completed a status review of the cleanup. This type of review is required at least every five years where the cleanup is complete but hazardous waste remains managed on-site. These reviews are done to ensure that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment.

The review included:

An evaluation of background information
Cleanup requirements
Effectiveness of the cleanup and any anticipated future actions
An analysis of ways for EPA to operate more efficiently

The review found that the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment. The next scheduled review will be in 2019. The Third Five-Year Review Report details the site's progress.

EPA modified its September 1997 decision document for the Detrex source area regarding containment and removal of the source area from Fields Brook. This modification, called an explanation of significant differences (PDF) (22pp, 1MB), or ESD, also addresses the extraction of heavy liquid in the on-site source area.

The Fields Brook site is comprised of four miles of brook and six industrial areas. Cleanup is ongoing in the area known as the Detrex Corp. Facility where "extraction wells” 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 ground water.

More than 20,000 gallons of liquid have been removed. An investigation of the current extraction system and possible alternative systems was done by Detrex Corp., one of the companies potentially responsible for the contamination. The report is available to the public.

EPA also oversaw work done by Detrex, in 2011 and 2012, which involved a small area in a nearby tributary. Contaminated sediment was removed from the tributary downstream from Detrex immediately west of State Road. After removing this sediment, Detrex lined the inside of the culvert with concrete and lined the tributary channel with stone and gravel. This was set in place with concrete grout underlain by French drains to catch any remaining liquids west of State Road. All storm water from Detrex is currently collected and treated before being released under permit directly to Fields Brook. The company is not currently discharging to the tributary and has not done so for several decades.

Contamination found during monitoring in the part of Fields Brook that runs between Millennium and the Detrex Corp. facility was cleaned up by the Fields Brook Action Group (several companies potentially responsible for the contamination) in 2009. This cleanup involved removing more than 24,000 tons of contaminated soil and re-routing and isolating Fields Brook from potentially contaminated floodplain soil.

The cleanup and re-routing were done to prevent recontamination of downstream areas of Fields Brook and the nearby Ashtabula River. The river was cleaned up separately in 2008 under the Great Lakes Legacy Act.

Work in the State Road area of Fields Brook was completed in 2009 in conjunction with Ashtabula County’s reconstruction of the State Road Bridge over Fields Brook.