Cleaning Up Contamination at Kahn’s
Monday, October 01, 2007

Posted by Michael Earl Patton

Photo courtesy of here.

The Cincinnati Beacon has obtained a copy of reports describing environmental concerns at the Kahn’s site.  Although they answer some questions, they do not answer others and raise new ones.  First, the site is contaminated and will need to be cleaned up before a new jail is built.  Second, only limited testing for contamination was done so the extent and magnitude could only be estimated, although it is probably not severe.  Third, given the fact that the site will have to be cleaned up, when will that work start and how will it be funded?  We will try to get the answers to this and other questions.

To clean up the site will take time and money.  If state money is used, it will probably take significant time just to apply for and receive funding.  Which means that the “delay” for the voter referendum, about which Commissioner Portune complains, is not a delay at all since work cannot yet proceed anyways.  If Hamilton County taxpayer money is used, then one has to ask why there is no mention of this where the “Comprehensive Safety Plan” talks about the costs (p.13).

The first ESA was done for the company and is what’s called a Phase I ESA.  It researches the history of the site using public records, interviews with key employees, and, in this case, company records. Through the years the site has been used for a meat processing facility, slaughterhouse, stockyards, oven manufacturing, retail stores, residences, saloons, blacksmith shop, wagon shop, fertilizer and glue factory, rail car cleaning and repair, warehouses, molasses and syrup manufacturing, freight storage, filling stations, and auto repair.  It concluded that there was cause for concern for environmental contamination.

No Phase II ESA was performed, or at least given to the Beacon. Instead, a draft copy of a “Preliminary Phase II Property Assessment” was provided.  This confirmed that there was contamination and recommended further testing be done to determine the extent.  The report also states that the county agreed to do no testing within 6 feet of the old Kahn’s building and inside the building itself (p. 3 of the report).  The authors conclude that the site will have to be cleaned up before it can be reused for commercial or industrial purposes.

Based on the reports, the Beacon now has several questions:

1. Has the draft report been finalized?

2. What exactly was this agreement between the company and the county restricting testing?

3. Has further testing been done, and what are the results?

4. The “Preliminary Phase II Property Assessment” states that the authors evaluated the property for possible reuse for commercial or industrial purposes. But a jail is a residential use—the inmates live there 24/7, and residential environmental standards are generally tighter than commercial/industrial ones.

Here is the definition of residential use as given in section 1301:7-9-13 of the Ohio Administrative Code, concerning clean-up of old underground petroleum storage tanks:

How does using the Kahn’s site for a jail affect the findings?

5. How does the county intend to clean up the site, and from what funds?  Will the county apply for state money?

There is state money available for clean-up of such sites, but the county has to make formal application for these moneys and compete with other jurisdictions also applying for funds.  Alternatively, the county could elect to pay for the clean-up itself, but in that case one must ask why there is no mention of this in the costs described in the “Comprehensive Safety Plan.”

In sum, the site is contaminated and must be cleaned up before it can be reused, especially before it can be reused for a jail since that means people would be exposed to any contamination 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Second, cleaning up the site will take time and money, neither of which seem to be included in the “Comprehensive Safety Plan.”

Thank you for reading (and printing from) The Cincinnati Beacon.