The Ohio Cast Products site is located at 2408 13th Street, N.E. in Canton, Stark County, Ohio. The facility used to manufacture malleable iron castings. The faciltiy has not operated since November 2004 when the company filed for bankruptcy. The site is approximately 11 acres in size with several large interconnected buildings comprising approximately half of the property. The site is located in a mixed residential and industrial area of Canton, and the East Branch of Nimishillen Creek borders the property to the south. Residential properties and an open lot border the site to the north, across 13th Street, N.E., while other industrial properties border the site to the east and west.
On February 20th, 2008, The City of Canton's Fire Department responded to a fire in the western portion of the sites building. This portion of the building was comprised mainly of office space, however there is a basement with unknown contents associated with that area of the building.
During the fire fighting efforts, the Fire Chief observed drums with flammable liquid labels, as well as various totes of unknown contents in the back of the property as well as inside the unburned portion of the facility.
The City of Canton's Health Department investigated the burned out portion of the facility and determined through visual inspection that there was likely asbestos containing material in the rubble. In March, 2008, the City of Canton requested assistance from the Ohio EPA. After Ohio EPA made an intial site visit and performed a visual inspection, they referred the site to the U.S. EPA for a time-critical removal action.
U.S. EPA performed a Removal Assessment at the site on May 22nd, 2008 and discovered the following: material is present inside of drums that exhibit the charactertic of flammability (flashpoint of less than 45 degrees F); material is present inside of drums that exhibit the characteristic of corrossivity (pH of less than 1 SU); pcb contamination was present in the site soils (250 ppm) around an electrical substation; pcb-oil had leaked from a transformer located inside the building into foundry sand (150,000 ppm); and, the burned out portion of the building contains friable asbestos fibers. A follow-up investigation conducted on July 8, 2008, found pcb contamination present in the water filled pits inside the building.
