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High benzene levels at East State location overdue for testing

Athens County will soon begin mandated testing for contaminated land found more than six years ago at the former site of the county garage, a site that was reported as meeting regulations when it was sold.

A 2006 assessment by Hometown Development LLC found levels of benzene that were 78 times the legal limit in the groundwater, according to a letter from the Bureau of Underground Storage Regulation to then-County Prosecutor David Warren.

Applebee’s, Holiday Inn, Verizon Wireless and CVS Pharmacy are currently on or near the contaminated property, located at 555 E. State St. The owners of the property could not be reached for comment.

The contamination is suspected to be the result of a leaky underground gasoline storage tank, according to the letter.

County Engineer Jeff Maiden, who is now responsible for handling the project, said he is in the process of researching means and cost of further testing.

“(Testing should) cost less than $10,000, but until we get the proposals, we won’t know,” Athens County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.

Former County Engineer Archie Stanley was first notified of the contamination in 2008, and a report on the contamination was due to the bureau in 2009.

Despite receiving multiple requests from the state for an investigation, the County Engineer’s office has yet to complete the required testing.

Stanley could not be reached for comment.

When the property was sold in 1999, an environmental report by Smalley and Associates Inc. deemed that no further action was necessary.

Dennis Smalley, the president of the company, pleaded guilty to four counts of fraud on unrelated cases in 2008, including false reports on a Rite Aid in Columbus and Superior Fibers in Bremen, Ohio.

He was sentenced to pay $340,000 in restitutions and fines, as well as to spend 60 days in jail, said Erin Strouse, a spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.

After that, the Ohio EPA called into question some of Smalley’s other reports, Eliason said.

Following the 2006 study, the bureau rescinded Smalley’s 1999 “no further action”

“The EPA has the belief that the original study can be inaccurate,” Athens County Commissioner Charlie Adkins said. “It blows my mind that the county engineer at the time did not pursue this.”

ld311710@ohiou.edu

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