MOUNT VERNON — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency asked for an additional three holes be drilled in the former American National Can property.
More than 80 holes have already been dug and the information received from those wells have been analyzed by Burgess & Niple, but the OEPA wants three more geoprobes drilled to be able to further test for possible pollutants in the ground.
Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Mavis said the former packaging plant used solvents and other contaminants in their work and they were testing to see if any of those were in the city’s aquifer that runs under the land and what it might take to clean the ground of those contaminants, which includes toluene, a clear, water-soluable liquid.
City officials were hoping to apply for Clean Ohio Funds to help clean up the contaminants, but the application deadline of July 18 is looming.
“We’re not sure we’re going to be ready to do that nor sure we have the money to continue to move the project ahead,” Mavis said. He said he would like to involve the owner of the property in the cleanup.
