EPA cleans up cold stoarge

YOUNGSTOWN -- An act of vandalism at a vacant village landmark has resulted in a cleanup by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The wheels were set in motion Sept. 8 when the Niagara County Sheriff's Department received a report of a strong smell of ammonia near the Youngstown Cold Storage building on Nancy Price Drive. When they arrived, Sheriff Thomas A. Beilein said, emergency services personnel discovered a valve on the outside of the building had been tampered with, causing ammonia stored there to be released into the air.

Beilein said the leaking pipe was plugged with a wooden broom handle. Another valve leading to it was located and shut off, he said.

Although Niagara County HazMat Unit was dispatched to the scene, it was "a pretty routine, nonspectacular thing," Emergency Services Coordinator James Volkosh said. "There was a very small release."

It was enough, however, to trigger a notification to the state Department of Environmental Conservation. That agency contacted the EPA, which initiated a clean up.

Mayor Neil Riordan said the cleanup was completed late last week when the remaining ammonia in the facility was burned off.

The ammonia was used as a refrigerant, said EPA spokesman Michael Basile, who added that it's not unusual for the agency to be summoned under such circumstances.

"From what we can gather, the building has been vacant for several years," he said. "Anytime there are abandoned factories or abandoned foundries ... in the aftermath there could be all kinds of problems on the site."

Now that the ammonia has been dealt with, the EPA's next action will be to evaluate the facility "to determine if there are any drums, lab packs, transformers" or other containers of unsafe products at the facility, he said.

The facility is owned by Youngstown Cold Storage, a privately held corporation with about 40 shareholders, said Porter farm owner and shareholder Neal Shippy.