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Painesville Site

Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program

Buffalo District
Published Dec. 11, 2023
Updated: Dec. 11, 2023

The Painesville Site, located in Painesville, Ohio, was a former magnesium production facility, operated by the Diamond Magnesium Company under contract to the Federal Government. From 1951 to 1953, Diamond Magnesium received approximately 1,650 tons of radioactively contaminated scrap steel from the Lake Ontario Storage Area (now the Niagara Falls Storage Site), to be used in the magnesium production process.

Project Status

The Corps of Engineers signed the Record of Decision (ROD) for the Painesville Site on April 7, 2006. The selected remedy for cleanup of the Painesville Site, documented in the ROD, was Excavation and Off-Site Disposal of radiologically contaminated soil that exceeds the levels established in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA).

Remediation of the Painesville Site began in April 2007; however, a temporary hold was placed on the cleanup in March 2008 after the discovery of significantly increased quantities of soil requiring remediation. The Corps’ original estimate of contaminated soil needing removal was based on available sampling data. As each of the individual excavation areas at the site were remediated, the amount of soil that was being removed exceeded the original quantity estimate. Approximately 9,400 cubic yards of soil were excavated from the site, and nine of the twelve identified excavation areas were successfully completed and backfilled, before the cleanup was placed on hold.

The Corps received $15.2 Million in funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to resume remediation of the Painesville Site. Site remediation resumed in June 2010, and the remediation fieldwork was successfully completed in August 2011.

The Corps of Engineers is currently preparing the site closure documentation for eventual transfer of the site to the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Legacy Management for long term stewardship.

Administrative Record File locations

Fairport Public Library
335 Vine Street
Fairport Harbor, OH 44077

Morley Library
184 Phelps Street
Painesville, OH 44077


Contact
FUSRAP Office
1-800-833-6390 *4
fusrap@usace.army.mil
478 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14202
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