A company dissolved. A court order with no one to enforce it. And 184 families drinking from private wells — right next door.
RAVENNA, Ohio — A Portage County community is living in the shadow of a closed factory's toxic footprint tonight — with contaminated groundwater detected near homes, and no clear path to a cleanup.
Crest Rubber Company operated in Ravenna from 1960 to 2019, manufacturing rubber products using hazardous chlorinated solvents. Since closing, the site has been linked to groundwater contamination that includes multiple known carcinogens — some at levels dozens of times above federal drinking water limits.
Vinyl chloride has been detected at up to 140 micrograms per liter. The federal limit is 2. Tetrachloroethene has been found at up to 83 micrograms per liter — more than sixteen times the allowable level.
The contamination sits approximately 200 feet from residential properties. All 184 residents within a quarter mile rely on private well water — not municipal water. So far, no contamination has been detected in residential drinking wells, but monitoring is ongoing. Soil gas and indoor air sampling have never been conducted, leaving the full picture of exposure unknown.
On March 31st, Ohio EPA recommended the site receive no federal Superfund designation — concluding the hazard score fell below the threshold required for priority cleanup status.
A 2021 state court order does require hazardous waste cleanup at the site — but with Crest Rubber dissolved and no responsible party identified; there is currently no one to enforce it against.
Residents are waiting for answers. So far, the only thing confirmed is that the chemicals are there — and the company that left them behind is not.
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