CANFIELD — City resident Brad Kincade, a 1988 Canfield High School graduate and owner of a window company, has made it his mission to ensure residents and high school students are safe from the chemicals that have leaked from the Material Sciences Corporation facility on West Main Street.

In October, Kincade attended a Canfield City Council meeting where he asked council members what was going on with the MSC leak, which council members thought was under control.

The leak was discovered on July 11 by a person on the Mill Creek MetroParks bike trail near the high school. The fire department and a HazMat team responded. The apparent leak was stopped by setting up a dam and the Ohio EPA was called.

The leak was coming from the MSC facility, who immediately brought in August Mack, an industrial cleanup specialist. Many thought that was the end of the story.

But at the Oct. 2 meeting, Kincade showed up and addressed council during the meeting’s public comments portion.

“On July 11, a brown liquid was reported off a path adjacent to MSC,” Kincade said. “I believe the fire department responded and HAZMAT was there. I saw them there. The EPA responded and issued MSC a notice of violation.”

He told council the leak was a maintenance issue. Kincade said he talked with the Ohio EPA representative and learned the brown liquid contained a PH higher than 12.5 and contained heavy metals, sodium hydroxide, arsenic and cyanide.

Kincade said he was walking his dog on the trail the day the leak was discovered. Since that day, there were nearly three months of no activity, until early in October when he saw heavy equipment and storage tanks being dropped at the site.

“I called the EPA and asked what was going on,” he said. I went to the October council meeting and no one on council was aware of what was happening.”

At the October meeting, City Manager David D’Apolito said, “We were aware of the initial incident. We were told it was contained. Then it was turned over to the EPA and Fire Department. We were never contacted again. I learned about it from Mr. Kincade.”

That is when the news came out about a “historic leak” that could have been seeping into the nearby creek for decades, way before MSC took over the plant in 2013.

August Mack has since placed a fence around the original leak site and is now looking at fencing in the creek that runs along the high school and Briarcliff Drive while testing takes place in it.

Kincade lives in The Preserves housing development that borders the creek and is close to the back of the MSC property. He has concerns for his own family as well as other Canfield children.

“My kids played in that creek,” Kincade said. “They collected stuff for science class and science fairs.”

He said both his daughters are now in their 20s, but his concern is over the hundreds of children who would play in the creek that is now the target of an investigation into the “historic leak.”

His biggest concern is over the fact no one was being updated on the issue.

“No one acknowledges any of this,” he said. That is why I am going to see this through. I think everyone involved would like to see it go away, but I am going to keep it going.”

Council President Christine Oliver told Kincade at the October meeting, “I would like to thank you for coming this evening and I also think it’s very important for you to know that we as a city were not made aware of this until 12:33 this afternoon when I received the email. We weren’t even aware of this. I would like you to know that. We are aware of it now.”

Since that initial meeting, Kincade has continued to attend council meetings and board of education meetings. He was happy to see a town hall set up, but felt there were still many unanswered questions, mostly concerning the historic leak and what it means.

“This is going to have to go to another level beyond me,” he said. “This was avoidable and someone has to be accountable.”

He said the two big questions are: “How did it happen?” and “Is it contained?”

Until those questions are answered satisfactorily, Kincade plans to stay involved by attending meetings and speaking on the issues at that time.

“I just want everyone to do the right thing,” he said. “I don’t feel the right thing has been done yet.”

Canfield Councilman Bruce Neff said he is thankful for Kincade’s efforts.

“I am very supportive of his efforts,” Neff said. “I am glad he came forward and shed light on this important situation. And I think we all agree this will be a long process of remediation.”

The Vindicator published an in-depth story on the leak investigation and cleanup in its Feb. 15 edition.