Editor’s Note: This article was updated Dec. 7, 2022, at 10 am to reflect that the city has not exceeded the OEPA’s requirement to remove an additional 7,500 tons of lime material by Mar. 31, 2023, and that an estimated 27,000 tons remain on the site.
MOUNT VERNON — At a special city council meeting on Monday, council members approved an additional $125,000 for removing lime sludge from its temporary storage site on Old Delaware Road.
That brings the total trucking costs allocated for lime removal to $249,000 for the year.
Council previously approved four purchase orders totaling $124,000. Of that, $79,062 has been paid; the work associated with the remaining $44,938 has been done but the money has not yet been paid.
As a result, United Aggregates stopped hauling the lime material until council approved additional funding.
“Additional farmers have contacted our agronomist as well as the people who are hauling for us saying they would be willing to take lime. The ground is still solid enough that we could move it,” explained Law Director Rob Broeren. “If we keep moving lime now, it will help us with the appeal we are working on with the Ohio EPA because eventually it will all have to get moved.
“Any stuff we get moved now helps us down the road with the additional deadlines that they have suggested but we are appealing,” he added.
The OEPA set a deadline of Dec. 31 for removing 7,500 tons of lime material from the site on Old Delaware Road. An additional 7,500 tons must be removed by Mar. 31, 2023. The city has exceeded the 7,500 required for removal by Dec. 31; it has not reached the 7,500 tons required to be removed by the Mar. 31 deadline.
The city must remove the remainder by Dec. 31, 2023. An estimated 27,000 tons remains on site.
“We hope to get relief from those deadlines, but we want to be ready in case we don’t,” Broeren said.
Auditor Terry Scott said the $125,000 council approved on Monday will come from the plant maintenance line account, which has a balance of $259,000. That leaves $134,000 for plant maintenance through the end of 2022.
The entire water fund currently has about a $1.3 million balance.
Scott said the work has to be completed by Dec. 31. Any portion of the $125,000 not encumbered by Dec. 31 will go back into the water account.
The resolution approving the $125,000 also authorized the city to waive bids and negotiate a contract with United Aggregates for loading and hauling the sludge. Council waived the three readings and adopted the legislation as an emergency with an eye toward getting as much lime material hauled as possible before weather conditions halt the process.
Broeren said it is his understanding that the city will bid the contract next year.
