CANFIELD — Residents will have an opportunity Monday to learn more about efforts to clean up a chemical spill near Canfield High School.

City Councilman Bruce Neff said the city will host a town hall at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Canfield High School. The event will include most or all of the stakeholders concerned with Material Sciences Corp.’s July chemical spill, including the company itself.

MSC operates a metal coating plant on U.S. Route 224. The rear portion of its property is separated from the high school property by a Mill Creek MetroParks bike path. Neff said the school district, Mill Creek and the Ohio EPA also will participate, along with August Mack Environmental Inc. — a Philadelphia-based environmental cleanup company.

“The city manager (David D’Apolito) will run it, and the discussion will be held in the high school auditorium,” Neff said. “We’ll then go to the cafeteria where the different people will have tables set up, and people can ask them questions directly.”

On July 11, a chemical leak — sodium hydroxide, also known as lye — was discovered in a ditch running along the bike trail. The fire department and HAZMAT responded and contained the leak. The Ohio EPA took over the investigation and has been working with the company ever since to clean up the spill.

The agency issued a formal document Dec. 18 stating what is happening and what needs to happen next. Those findings were presented at a city council meeting Jan. 5.

The report stated that during the investigation, another leak was discovered that could have been ongoing for several years.

Neff, a former chemistry teacher, noted a leak 12 years ago. Some of the chemicals from that spill included zinc, arsenic and hexavalent chromium — “a very powerful and carcinogenic chemical.”

Neff said when that leak happened, it was amid a high school basketball game. Canfield’s fire department shut down the game and evacuated the arena, telling everyone to avoid heading west from the school.

In the years since, Neff said, chemicals have likely leached under the trail and into Sawmill Creek, which runs beside the school and through a nearby neighborhood.

Neff said August Mack has been working since July to keep up on the damage from the most recent leak.

“It has installed multiple storage tanks on the property to collect the rainwater to prevent it from going into the creek,” he said. “They also have been digging out contaminated dirt. They have almost 300,000 gallons of contaminated rainwater and they have to find a hazardous waste treatment facility to take the water and soil.”

Neff said the short- and long-term contamination, as well as the company’s plans to correct the problems, are on everyone’s minds.

“We’re all concerned about how much volume of chemicals are stored and used in the facility, and what processes they use to dispose of them once they’re used for coating,” he said.

He said they also would like to know about old storage tanks that were put in place after the first spill and whether or not those can be dealt with.

“I don’t think we’re going to have answers at the town hall, but we feel

it’s important to be transparent and let the public know what’s going on,” he said.