Marion Industrial Depot

When dad was alive he used to tell me that the army had a plant in Marion. I remember driving east of Marion, I think it was Pole Lane rd. and on the east side of the road before the airport I believe there is remnant's of one of the plants.

Scioto Ordnance Plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Scioto Ordnance Plant (SOP) was an ammunitions and bomb making facility built in Marion County, Ohio by the United States Army in 1942. The plant operated until 1945 when production wound down.

Families who owned property within the zone identified for the facility were notified March 2, 1942 that they had to vacate their land by May 1, 1942. Not only did this mean that the displaced had to find a place to live in the midst of a housing and fuel shortage, but it also meant moving and/or selling livestock and agricultural equipment.

Federal contractors began removing field fencing in April, 1942.

After May 1, 1942, most of the farmsteads located inside the perimeter were leveled; underground bunkers and production buildings were built in clusters throughout the SOP site.

By June 1942 SOP was employing 2,900 employees, many of who moved north from Southern Ohio and Kentucky for the high paying wages offered. Once in operation, the plant produced fuses and boosters, 20 mm bullets, 50 caliber bullets, 50 caliber artillery shells, 65 mm shells and 75 mm shells. Incendiary bombs and napalm barrel bombs, similar to those used on Dresden by Allied forces were also produced at the site. Munitions containers served duel duty by carrying SOP products overseas, and then doubling as coffins for those killed in action.

A housing development - Grandview - was built over the magazine area of the former plant.

Also built was the Marion Engineering Depot which was authorized in the summer of 1942. Land for the plant was taken in Grand Prairie, Scott, Clairdon and Marion Townships in an area covering 12,500 acres.

Built to support the War Effort shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, the former Marion Engineer Depot complex once included a bomb factory known as the Scioto Ordnance Plant, a German POW camp imaginatively named Camp Marion, and the depot itself, which was used to stockpile strategic supplies.

At its busiest time, the facility employed over 7,000 people, most of whom were women. The Scioto Ordnance Plant and Camp Marion both closed in 1945.

Today, River Valley High School, just east of the Marion Industrial Depot, is built on the site of the former POW camp.

The General Services Administration, which took control of the facility once the war had wound down, discontinued use of the property and closed it in early 1961.

http://www.micwarehouse.com/facilities/hh_intro.html

2002 CPEO Military List Archive
From: Lenny Siegel
Date: 18 Jul 2002 22:16:19 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Marion Engineering Depot, Ohio

[The former Marion Engineering Depot, in Marion, Ohio, has been recognized for the past few years as one of the horror stories of military contamination.

Middle School and High School students have been attending school on a contaminated formerly used defense site since the 1960s. It appeared, to outsiders, that the problem was resolved in 2000, when a deal was struck to relocate the schools. However, that relocation will not take place until the fall term, 2003.

The River Valley (RV) Schools investigation began in June 1997 when parents noticed a high rate of leukemia and other cancers among former students of RV. The Ohio EPA (OEPA) and Ohio Department of Health (ODH) were notified and an investigation was launched. We soon learned that the history of the RV school site was cause for concern.

The property was used for agriculture until 1942, when the War Department acquired 654 acres to build the Marion Engineer Depot (MED), the largest facility of its kind in the USA. At the same time, the War Department purchased over 12,000 acres north of the MED site to build the Scioto Ordnance Plant (SOP), which manufactured bombs, fuses, and boosters. In 1948, the
Atomic Energy Commission purchased 1,200 acres of the SOP to build an atomic research installation to be operated by Monsanto.

Questions remain regarding the activities that took place at this facility. The MED stored and repaired heavy equipment such as cranes, trucks, scrapers, generators, etc. They also stored Bailey bridges and the radioactive markers used on them, radioactive metascopes, raw bulk
materials and ores, transformers, etc.

Activities included cleaning, stripping of cosmoline, sandblasting, degreasing, draining oil and gasoline, oiling, lubricating, and painting heavy equipment. During WWII, there was a prisoner of war camp. Prisoners arrived at the MED by train and were deloused with fumigants containing arsenic.

The MED began phasing down in 1961. In 1962, the property was sold off in several parcels. The US Army Reserves purchased 130 acres for a Local Training Area (LTA). River Valley School District purchased 78 acres on the east end of the former MED. The GSA reserved 144 acres. The rest was purchased by various industries.

In 1962, River Valley High School was built on the former MED property. River Valley Middle School was built next to it in 1968. There have been approximately 5,500 graduates from RV since then. Younger children also used the ball fields for Little League sports activities. When the OEPA and ODH became involved in 1997, it soon became clear that leukemia rates at RV were elevated.

Through historical searches and eyewitness accounts of former MED employees, it also became clear that the disposal practice for hazardous materials at the former MED was to bury or burn on site. The disposal areas were mainly pits and trenches, although there was also surface disposal and spills that occurred both on the ground and in ditches. The main disposal areas at the MED had been on the east and south sides of the property.

RV schools are now located on the eastern end, and the Army Reserves Outdoor Training Area is on the south end. Despite this information, local community leaders were more concerned at the possible negative financial impact this information would have on the community than they were about the negative health implications to the students. Alarm bells were sounded that property values would decrease and community development would suffer if we were to become known as "Cancer Valley."

The community became divided, and politicians fanned the flames. What started as a scientific investigation into a leukemia cluster and toxic waste dump became what was later called "political science." An OEPA memo discussed their "intended outcomes." The free reign of the USACE, as the responsible party, to investigate and characterize the nature and extent of their own liability was often characterized as "the fox guarding the hen house." Every effort was being made to minimize the problem rather than to characterize it.

In 1997, the OEPA hired contractors to do preliminary testing at RV. Soil and groundwater testing revealed several areas of serious concern. Yellow caution tape, like that used at crime scenes, was strung around certain areas of RV's ball fields. To ease the shock of the test results, the public was immediately assured that although the contamination was there, there were no pathways of exposure to the children. Over a year later, the USACE's Preliminary RI acknowledged that the pathways had been there all along. Sadly, so had the children.

The Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) took over the investigation in early 1998. Trenching activities were conducted to determine the nature and extent of contamination. Initially, the USACE characterized the trenching as uncovering "construction debris and prisoner poop." It was later learned that petroleum products and chlorinated solvents began filling the hole at a shallow depth, and the OEPA ordered the USACE to halt their activities and immediately cover the area.

As the investigation progressed, more areas once thought safe were suddenly deemed "off limits." The USACE conducted a major arsenic removal from the ditches surrounding the school property.

It was not until June, 1999 that a chain link fence was erected around 10 acres, or half, of
the 20 acre site now called Operable Unit 1 (OU1). However, the girls' softball field (located immediately adjacent to OU1 on one side and the Middle School on the other) was still being used.

In April 1999, results from testing done 4 months earlier revealed that TCE contamination in the outfield area was some of the highest hits to date. Once the test results became public, an "Off Limits" sign was erected at the field, but no access restriction was supplied. In one area, a
3,600 gallon TCE DNAPL (a TCE pool) has been characterized. PAHs such as benzo(a)pyrene, VOCs such as vinyl chloride and TCE, SVOCs, PCBs, dioxins, and heavy metals make up the nearly 100 chemicals found onsite. Chlorinated solvents and other toxins have been found in the surface soil, subsurface, groundwater, and air. Over 40 acres of the 78 acre school site is contaminated.

In the summer of 2000, citizens discovered that the OEPA had known about significant problems at this site since 1978, but failed to tell the public. The OEPA had been involved for years in contamination issues on portions of the former MED across the fence from the school, but had never shared this information with the other agencies, the RAB, or the community.

In 2000, an act of Congress created legislation that would allow
relocation of the two schools as part of the USACE's remediation plan.
It was estimated that cleanup costs at RV could reach up to $60,000,000
to achieve the residential standards necessary to allow the children to
remain. New schools could be built for less than half that amount.
Through a cooperative agreement with the state, the Army provided
$15,000,000 to help build new schools for RV, with additional funding
coming from the Ohio School Facilities Commission's Extreme
Environmental Contamination Fund. Marion voters passed a levy to make
up the difference. The new schools may be completed by August 2003.
For over 5 years, 900 children per year have remained on the RV campus
as cancer clusters among graduates have been validated and toxic waste
has been characterized over nearly two-thirds of their school grounds.
Areas once considered safe when the investigation began are now known to
be hazardous.

Thousands of RV graduates who did not have the luxury of
knowing they were being exposed to cancer-causing toxic waste for the 6
years they attended Middle and High School continue to report their
illnesses to the Ohio Department of Health. Experts continue to
question the scope and effectiveness of testing done to date. One OEPA
employee characterized our children as "guinea pigs in a lab" in
reference to what health effects might manifest from their exposure.
Parents are forced to ask themselves how much risk is acceptable for
their children in order to attend their local public school.

Our goal remains to assure that everything is done to assure that the
children are safe. Children should not have to go to school on a toxic
waste dump. These children should be temporarily relocated until new
schools are built. We also feel that past graduates have a right to know
that their unrestricted access to RV's grounds provided potential
exposures to a long list of toxins.

We continue to request that the
Ohio Department of Health provide graduates with information regarding
the growing numbers of cancer cases. River Valley graduates need some
sort of health tracking program that would continue to monitor long term
effects and provide information where needed. We were unwitting
victims, but the same can not be said for the children who are allowed
to remain there today.
--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918

C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\genealogy\[CPEO-MEF] Marion Engineering Depot, Ohio.htm

wow...........