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Munhall cited over dumping at former school site
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A controversy over the dumping of building materials at the former Woodlawn Middle School in Munhall has grown to involve Steel Valley School District, Munhall, Munhall Sanitary Sewer Municipal Authority and the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The school district has been cited by Munhall for illegal dumping at the Woodlawn property, school director Mike Terrick said in May.
Dave Cannon, Munhall code enforcement officer, could not be reached for comment on what such a citation entails.
Mr. Terrick has expressed concern that roofing material that may contain asbestos may be beneath other building materials that were dumped at the site.
In response to an anonymous complaint, the DEP sent two inspectors to the site in May. DEP spokesman John Poister said the inspectors found fill material. They couldn't determine if the material was "clean fill," but it was not hazardous, he said.
In June, Mr. Poister said the agency sent a letter to the school district.
"We want to see what their agreements for placement of clean fill on school property are and who they are dealing with [in] regard to placing that fill material on the property," Mr. Poister said.
He said in addition to asking for a list of contractors who are allowed to dump clean fill on school property, the department has asked the district whether the material dumped on the site was certified to be clean fill.
After the district was informed that DEP agents would visit the site in May, one load of building refuse containing tar-covered roofing material was removed from the site, Mr. Terrick said.
Mr. Terrick said last month that the sanitary sewer authority would send a letter to the school district requiring the district to remove building materials that were dumped over one, and possibly two, sanitary sewer lines in a valley below the former middle school. In addition to being a school director, Mr. Terrick also is manager of the sanitary authority. "[The district] will probably go back to the contractor [who dumped the materials] and require him to remove it," he said.
Bill Rogers of R&B Contracting responded to Mr. Terrick's statements, saying he never dumped shingles or other roofing materials at the Woodlawn property.
He said that in response to a request from school director Joe Ducar, he removed a truckload of debris from the site. It was not building materials, but a larger load that included refrigerators, microwave ovens, shingles and shrubs and trees torn out by landscapers, he said.
After that, Mr. Rogers said, he piled clean dirt and bricks on the level land at the top of the hillside to prevent people from dumping items over the hill.
He said he did not dump any building materials into the valley over the sewer lines. However, he said, a number of people have dumped various materials into the valley over the past 10 to 15 years.
At the May 22 Steel Valley school board meeting, Mr. Ducar said debris, including roofing shingles and landscaping detritus, had been cleaned from the dump site three times.
First Published July 6, 2012 12:00 am
