Letter to the editor

Concern about barrel factory column

Editor:

I recently read your Nov. 10 issue and took exception with the column, “The fire at Lammer’s barrel factory.” To call it a “barrel factory” in 2016 grossly understates the actual function of this facility and the extent to which the fire was an environmental catastrophe which remains on the EPA’s Super Fund list to this day. Sadly little has been done to remediate the damage.

The column by Joan Baxter is recounted almost as a fond memory. This was not a factory, nor were there any barrels as most people think of them. This was a hazardous waste facility which housed 55-gallon drums of the most toxic industrial waste the Miami Valley’s collective industries could churn out.

It was estimated that 500,000 gallons of toxic waste spilled into the gound, creek, or vaporized into the atmosphere. The cause of the fire suggested a lax disregard for safety and was certainly avoidable.

The damage is done, but the article you ran continues the mistaken notion that this was little more than an exciting fire at a “barrel factory.”

— Gary Siler, Beavercreek