Mill Creek Metro Park - Anti-Frackers

[Youngstownshrimp]

BGEES says it's not sewage it's because of fracking.

[AllanY2525]

Raw sewage in the river PALES in comparison to the hundred of tons of toxic
waste dumped in the river by the mills over decades.

Unlike toxic chemicals such as mercury, lead, etc. sewage is biodegradable
and will go back to nature fairly quickly.

My question about the fish kill was: how OFTEN does this actually happen in
Mill Creek park? Once a week?  a month?  six months? a year?  every several
years?

[Towntalk]

Don't talk to me about "real world" my friend ... the fact of the matter is that the Republicans have slashed the amount of money that goes into infrastructure projects. When Eisonhower became President, he built a major national highway system in one presidential term, but the Republican Presidents after him and the Republican House and Senate took a meat ax to infrastructure to the point that they are in bad condition, and the states are not benefiting from the money that Washington is raking in on gas tax. Oh, I forgot, it's not the responsability of government, national or state to spend taxpayer dollars on infrastructure, just as Social Security and welfare should come from the private sector and not through government.

[joly1584]

While the local governments need to be conservative in spending, their hands are tied in red tape.  Right now the only funds for fixing this problem are coming from our water bills.  The monies used for those other projects are unavailable for this.

While this report is 20 years old it does tell where the pollution for the Mahoning River and all the local waters is coming from:

http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/documents/mahon94.pdf

[Towntalk]

Oh, by the way Rick, go down to City Hall and you will be able to find dozens of plans that cost tax dollars in the thousands of dollars that never were implimented during the last ten years. The various pencle pusher planners are always busy creating new plans that end up being tossed into an ever growing pile but never implimented.

[Towntalk]

If the city would stop spending money on the Covelli Center, an Ampatheater, and all the money it spends on downtown events and other non essential stuff and more on upgrading the infrastructure it wouldn't take 50 years to correct problems like what happened to Mill Creek Park. Sell Covelli ... ditch the Ampatheater ... write off unused city parks such as Oakland Field in Lincoln Park ... one park for each side of town. The 7th Ward has several parks, and when was the last ball agme at Pemberton/Donnell Field? What good is concentrating so much money in non-essentials at the expense of essential infrastructures? Given the West Side has the bulk of Mill Creek Park, the city should close all the city parks on that side of town.
Congress made it clear that it is not going to pour out money on local infrastructure so where my fine friend is Youngstown going to come up with the millions that will be needed?
Do you seriously think that the state will step in and open up it's purse ... oh wait a moment, are you not opposed to the state throwing tax dollars at cities? Just asking.

[Rick Rowlands]

This is an outrage that should not be allowed to stand. The Mill Creek board needs to haul the city into court and force it to pay ALL of the cleanup costs. The City KNEW that the sewer system was bad for how many years but did absolutely NOTHING.
The City says that it will take 20 years to get the sewer system updated ... THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE!

Stow it!!!  The city is hardly doing nothing.  They have a plan in place to construct larger sewers and separate sanitary from the storm sewers.   But it costs money, lots of it.  $146 million to be exact.  Now, knowing that this is Youngstown and not some well off city, they have spread out the work into a schedule that allows the current sewer customers to pay for the improvements without raising sewer bills beyond what customers can afford. 

In the real world, screaming and carrying on will not change the facts of the situation.  Gone are the days when people could take a reasoned approach to issues.  Its all screaming and carrying on, grandstanding and generally acting foolish.  It no wonder that good competent people don't want to go into politics.  Who wants to be treated like trash for attempting to solve real world problems with actual workable solutions?

[Towntalk]

I didn't know that Boardman was dumping into Mill Creek. I didn't think Mill Creek was large enough to be used for that purpose. As Boardman grows, will their sewage treatment plant be able to handle it? Also, is there any way that the OEPA can determine precisely which community is responsable?

[jay]

The discharge from Boardman's sewage treatment plant is dumped directly into mill creek south of Rt 224.
Was their sewage treatment plant operating properly during the last few weeks?

[AllanY2525]

When was the last time a fish kill of this type happened in the park? 

Didn't Youngstown just have one of the wettest months' rainfall for June since record keeping
began (if I'm remembering an article coirrectly that I read online...) something like 12 inches(?)
of rain for the area......


Just curious......

[Towntalk]

http://www.vindy.com/news/2015/jul/11/appropriate-course-of-action/

[Towntalk]

http://wkbn.com/2015/07/10/mill-creek-park-devotees-devastated-by-closure-of-lakes/

[Towntalk]

Are they at some of the picnic areas?

[jay]

Mill Creek Park has several primative restrooms that are basically latrines.

[sfc_oliver]

And of course Mill Creek ends up in the Mahoning river....