Air sampling completed at old Sciotoville oil terminal

SCIOTOVILLE, Ohio (WSAZ) - The old oil terminal that sits across the railroad tracks from Sciotoville, Ohio, has been a target for Portsmouth City Councilman Dennis Packard. He would like to see the property developed and better utilized by local residents.

“We’re going to keep going after it,” Packard said.

The city of Portsmouth is very limited in what it can do with the property because it is owned by a company called Buckeye Partners. In April of 2022, councilmembers passed a resolution to let the company know that the city wishes to work with Buckeye Partners in regards to the future of the site. The company issued a statement saying it was open to further discussions about the property.

Since passing that resolution, Buckeye Partners gave the city of Portsmouth permission to conduct environmental tests at the site. The city recently completed air sampling.

“There wasn’t anything found,” Packard said. “But the test did recommend a second phase which would be core sampling.”

Core testing would allow the company and the city to find out if any hazardous chemicals have contaminated the soil on the property. Packard says this second phase of testing is estimated to cost nearly $19,000.

“Even though that is probably a small number to the city, it still would be silly to do that just to give the money to a private company who then wouldn’t have to do it themselves,” Packard said.

Packard plans to bring up the property as a discussion item at council’s next meeting on March 27, with the hopes of working with the property owner to figure out how to fund the next round of testing.

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