The former Vine Street Dump poses no obvious human health danger and probably can be redeveloped for industrial use, said Bonnie Phillips, environmental compliance manager in Cincinnati's Office of Environmental Management.
''We're not finding anything that is a deal-breaker,'' she said.
The 20-acre site is Cincinnati's prime candidate under the ''brownfields'' program to salvage contaminated, abandoned properties and attract businesses to them.
Key to success is an understanding of health risks and cleanup sufficient to protect potential users without necessarily spending what is required to return the property to pristine ''greenfields'' condition.
Ms. Phillips' findings, conclusions and plans for further studies will be explained at a public meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 19, at the Carthage Recreation Center, 19 E. 72nd St.
Today, the property generally is known as the Carthage Flea Market. It was a private landfill for years.
Ms. Phillips' initial test bores - seeking buried wastes and ground water - were limited to nine acres where Philip Carey Corp. dumped asbestos, fly ash, asphalt and defective shingles from 1968 to 1970.
She found roofing materials which were ''no great surprise'' but water was contaminated by dyes and pharmaceuticals, and she plans up to eight further test bores to probe that problem.
Affected acres are owned by Jacob Lustig and the Millcreek Conservancy District, Ms. Phillips said, and both are cooperating with the brownfields program and tests.
Testing also addressed concerns of Communities United For Action and anxious neighbors who feared that buried wastes caused their cancers.
Fears about the site are nothing new.
In 1986, the Ohio Department of Health said buried sludge was volatile and contaminants might have escaped into the air. There also was danger of contamination of water in nearby Mill Creek because the landfill was not sealed, the preliminary assessment warned. That document recommended a study ''to determine if these materials contain hazardous constituents.''
Eleven years later, that study is under way. Ms. Phillips said she has the budget for the second set of tests and hopes to have results early next year.
Cincinnati was not involved in the dumping, Ms. Phillips said, and would not be involved in soil tests but for the brownfields program. State and federal agencies did nothing because the landfill was too far down on priority lists, she said. ''It's covered with asphalt.''
