Sierra Club has partnered with the Friends of the Mahoning River since late 2018 to fight against one of the largest proposed wetland fills in Ohio permitting history. Although a 401 permit was issued by the Ohio EPA in 2019, followed by a 404 permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, recent updates have brought new hope for preserving this vital wetlands area of Mosquito Creek.
On October 6th Mercy Health, the initial primary end user of Cafaro Company’s proposed Enterprise Park development, released a statement in which they announced that during a September Kent State Board of Trustees meeting, the Board approved the sale of 62.88 acres, which Mercy Health intends to acquire for the development of a health care campus. Mercy Health does acknowledge that environmental impacts is one of the criteria used to identify suitable land parcels for development.
Sierra Club partner Friends of the Mahoning River has shared a statement on the recent update, including applauding Mercy Health on their decision: “We commend Mercy Health Youngstown for this prudent move that conserves land with ecologically important economic value that will avoid degradation of human and other environmental health.”
The ability of the project to move forward has been called into question without an appropriate end user, particularly one that benefits the community such as a hospital.
UPDATE: Sierra Club Statement
The Sierra Club is the oldest and largest environmental grassroots organization, with over 3.8 million members and supporters. Environmental health is crucial to supporting public health, and Sierra Club is dedicated to protecting the environment to benefit the health of everyone. Previously it was reported that Mercy Health was interested in developing a new location to serve Trumbull County through the Cafaro Company. The previous site plan included the filling of almost 16 acres of high quality wetland in the Mosquito Creek watershed. The Ohio Chapter worked closely with local group Friends of the Mahoning River to attempt to protect this vital habitat.
The Sierra Club Ohio Chapter commends Mercy Health for the decision to relocate their planned development at a site that does not have grave environmental impacts. The Ohio Chapter feels health care providers should regard the health of their community in a holistic way and acknowledge the connection between human health and the health of their environment. The decision to take environmental impacts of development into consideration sets a great example of how this can be done, and we applaud Mercy Health on this choice.
We will continue to update on this issue as more information becomes available! Please contact Emily Obringer at emily.obringer@sierraclub.org with any questions.