Health Department to end Hilton Davis funding

The Cincinnati Health Department plans to make one final payment to the Pleasant Ridge Community Council (PRCC), which will end its funding of environmental remediation monitoring at the Hilton Davis site.

The payment of $12,000 will fund technical consulting fees that accrued for work done by environmental consulting firm Henry S. Cole & Associates between the first of the year and March 31.

City funding for the PRCC and Citizens Concerned About Hilton Davis was first approved in 1997 after nearly two decades of pressure.

Hilton Davis, at 2345 Langdon Farm Road, first began in 1922 and has operated under multiple owners. Today it is owned by Emerald Performance Materials, a creation of B.F. Goodrich via Noveon, which still operates on the western and southwestern portion of the site.

For many years, the Hilton Davis plant manufactured pigments, dyes and specialty chemicals for the Freedom Chemical Company.

During the plant's years of operation, large amounts of pollutants were dumped into four waste lagoons, which many in the surrounding residential neighborhoods feared would seep into the soil.

Cleanup of the site was mandated in a 1986 state court decision and began in 1987.

Under the terms of the court order, former owner Kodak Co. quickly cleaned up the lagoons, but 109 areas of contaminated soil remained on the grounds.

With cleanup of those areas now nearing completion, attention has turned to the property's redevelopment.

Kodak has proposed deed restrictions that would assure that the 80-acre property would remain forever industrial, even going so far as having the site blacktopped, fenced in and guarded.

Residents in surrounding Pleasant Ridge, Bond Hill, Norwood and Golf Manor aren't so excited about the prospect of this possible blight. In 2005, Councilmember David Crowley sponsored a successful resolution siding with the neighbors.

In a May 2005 report, then-City Manager Valerie Lemmie found the northeastern 24 acres of the site to be the most developable, likely with light industrial uses to serve as a buffer zone between the residential neighborhoods and Emerald's current operations. Ten acres at the southeast corner of the site were suggested for parking or greenspace.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been slow to make any decisions on Kodak's proposal or any other aspect of the property's future.

An ordinance authorizing the $12,000 payment is currently in the City Council's Finance Committee.

WINDOWS LIVE BIRD'S EYE VIEW
GOOGLE AERIAL MAP