Mayor Matt Starr said on Friday that an order from the Ohio EPA for the city to remove lime sludge from a temporary storage facility on Old Delaware Road was surprising and could cost the city more than $2 million.
Ohio EPA Director Laurie A. Stevenson ordered Mount Vernon to remove lime sludge from the city’s Street Department property. The order made on Sept. 14 said that by Dec. 31 the city must remove 7,500 cubic yards of the lime material. All of it must be gone by Dec. 15, 2023. The state’s investigation began after an anonymous complaint.
He said the city had been working closely and diligently from the beginning on a resolution that would allow farmers to take the lime material. However, the latest EPA order may deprive the farming community of the lime. And the order could cost the city in excess of $2 million to landfill it.
The Ohio EPA considers it a safe product.
“We think the most responsible thing to do is to get [the lime] on the farm,” Starr said. "We're going to continue to work very, very closely and collaboratively with EPA to try to find a working, mutually agreeable resolution to this.”
The city continues to aggressively seek farmers who want the lime.
On Friday, a farmer requested more than 1,000 tons of the lime material, which the city expects he will take by early next week.
Starr said if the city sold the lime, it would be a product worth more than $2 million.
Regarding a potential appeal, Law Director Rob Broeren said the city would determine the factual assertions and legal conclusions in the order to determine whether it is necessary to appeal and the best way to do so.
The city has no plans to put the lime material in the field next to its lime lagoons, he said.
“To the best of my knowledge, we have not looked at moving the current storage area to another city place,” Broeren said.
