After a meeting with hospital officials Tuesday, Murray said, “I’m very disappointed in the meeting that we had. I specifically requested that SOMC come with a plan to get the materials out of the system. It’s unlawful for any of these wastes to enter our sewer system. Instead of coming with a system, they said they were there to listen to our concerns.”
Now, she has sent correspondence to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency requesting an inspection of the hospital’s waste facilities.
In an e-mail to Fred Snell, Steve Rine and Dave Schuetz of the Ohio EPA, Murray is requesting that Ohio EPA conduct a joint inspection of the hospital and its wastes.
“I request that the Divisions of Surface Water, Hazardous Wastes, and Solid and Infectious Wastes (and any others you feel appropriate) do this inspection and I am requesting that this inspection be done as soon as possible,” Murray stated.
When contacted Wednesday, Randy Arnett, SOMC president and CEO, said he did not wish to make a statement concerning the Mayor’s latest move.
Murray said, “I decided, based on the comments in the meeting yesterday (Tuesday) that I’m going to have inspections reviewed internally by our departments of other facilities that handle similar materials, whether it’s a hospital, or a nursing home or whatever.”
In her correspondence with the EPA, Murray told them she had been working with SOMC since April, requesting they come up with a plan to prevent hospital debris from entering the combined sewers from their sanitary line.
“The result has been backup in the homes of residents contiguous to the hospital. This is happening at very unpredictable times including during dry weather. The most recent back up occurred barely two weeks ago,” she stated.
In the e-mail, Murray talks about just returning from a meeting with Arnett and his media representative.
“I had requested that they come with a plan for our review as to how they would collect and get rid of the debris before it enters our systems. Instead, we were told they were there to hear our concerns. This was not the purpose of the meeting,” Murray said. “After presentation of the history and some discussion, I specifically asked that Mr. Arnett agree that the hospital would manually inspect their line seven days a week and remove material before it enters our system. They would not agree and instead stated they would ‘help the city in any way they could with the city’s sewer problems.’”
Murray referred to the hospital’s response with, “This is totally unacceptable. I feel we have given them every opportunity to do the right thing.”
Hospital officials Tuesday, in continuing to deny they are sending hospital debris into the sewer system, reported they were in the process of installing two large grinders to ensure that nothing from the facility clogs the water lines.
Murray had wanted a trap in place that would instead collect any debris, with the hospital then being responsible for disposing of that material without sending it back into the sanitary sewer system.
Murray said she was spurred to look into the issue when residences at 2501 and 2505 Shawnee Road experienced flooding of their basements with sanitary sewer debris.
This, in conjunction with several other errors which have come to my attention recently, have convinced me otherwise. The mayor is fighting the wrong battles and missing the big picture. I would concede to sign a recall petition now because I do not see her as the hope that she had made herself up to be last summer.