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A tsunami of green is going tohit Ohio — big green waves ofcash — if marijuana is legalized,advocates say.

“There’s enough money in thisfor everybody,” Responsib-leOhio investor Alan Mooneysays in a YouTube video promot-ing his Ohio Cannabis Institute. Mooney, an entrepreneur andlicensed minister who uses “Sir”with his name because of anhonorary designation by PopeBenedict XVI, calls marijuana a“miracle plant” and “a gift fromGod.”

But opponents say the effectwould be devastation, not salva-tion.

Ballot issue

Would legalpot createmore jobsor trouble?By Alan JohnsonTHE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

See Pot Page A7

This summer was revolu-tionary for cardiologists andsome of their toughest-to-treatpatients.

Almost three decades afterthe advent of statins, two new,powerful cholesterol drugsgained approval by the U.S.Food and Drug Administration.

Doctors say the injected

Medicine

2 cholesteroldrugs pricey,promisingBy Misti CraneTHE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

See Drugs Page A5

74/50Details onPage B10

FALL FILM PREVIEW: Last‘Hunger Games,’ new ‘Star

Wars’ lead the way / E1

Inside: Couponsworth up to $102Coupon values vary by delivery zone.

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Price is $2.50 in areas outside Franklin County.

GREEN CAMP, Ohio — TheLittle Scioto River flowsthrough Marion County here,past cornfields, factories and

a park.The creek, surrounded by

tall grass, crooked trees and achorus of croaking frogs, ispeaceful compared with thenoise of Columbus nearly60 miles away. The river daw-

dles here.That quiet scene, though,

belies the murky truth: TheLittle Scioto River is amongthe nation’s most polluted.The waterway is laden withtoxic chemicals.

The Baker Wood PreservingCo., a business that treatedrailroad ties with coal-tarcreosote from 1890 until itclosed in the 1960s, is the

Environment

Little Scioto cleanup meandersBy Laura ArenschieldTHE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

See Cleanup Page A6

Thirty seconds. • That’s how long it took fans of PopeFrancis to snatch up 10,000 tickets released last week forhis Mass in Philadelphia. Rock-star status? Absolutely.• As the leader of the Roman Catholic Church prepares

to make his first U.S. visit this week, organizers are preparing forthe unprecedented crush of people expected to visit Washington,New York or Philly in the hope of getting a glimpse of the manknown as “the people’s pope.”

COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER DISPATCH

A cardboard cutout of Pope Francis greets people as they enter the offices at St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Sunbury. Agroup from the church, including the Rev. David Sizemore, will attend the papal Mass in Philadelphia next Sunday.

‘A people’s pope’Francis’ upcoming

U.S. visit generatinglots of excitement

in central Ohio,across the country

By JoAnne Viviano • THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

See Pope Page A10

OHIO STATE: Buckeyes holdon to beat Northern Illinoisdespite five turnovers / D1

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cause of the pollution.Stacked and left outside

to dry, the creosote-drenched ties dripped theoily tar onto the ground,where it oozed into aditch that runs to theLittle Scioto. A knowncancer risk to people, thecreosote killed all aquaticlife in a 5-mile stretch ofthe stream.

For years, federal, stateand local officials havetalked about restoringthat section of the LittleScioto. Cleanup effortsactually started once, butthe money to pay forthem dried up.

“It’s disappointing,”said Lynn Clabaugh, aMarion Township trusteeand farmer who ownsland along the Little Scio-to. “They have the federaland the state money todo everything else exceptto do what is basic forpeople, like take care ofthe water quality.”

The Little Scioto is aSuperfund site, one of 50in Ohio and among morethan 1,000 nationwide.The Superfund was cre-ated 35 years ago to dealwith severe pollutioncaused by industrialchemical contamination.

For 20 years, cleanupefforts were regularlyfunded, and projects werecompleted. But over thepast 15 years, the fundhas dwindled. This year,the total is about $1.1 bil-lion, about one-third ofwhat it was at its peak.

Environmental clean-ups are expensive and

can take years, if notdecades, to complete.Whatever money is avail-able these days is used onthe worst cases, expertssay.

“Every year, it’s a fightto see how much Con-gress is going to give us(for Superfund clean-ups),” said Lois Gibbs,often called the “motherof Superfund.” Shefounded the Center forHealth, Environment andJustice, a national orga-nization that lobbies forstronger environmental

health regulations.The Superfund began

in 1980 after Gibbs, athen-housewife in Niag-ara Falls, N.Y., learnedthat her son’s neighbor-hood elementary schoolhad been built next to atoxic-waste dump. Thatneighborhood was LoveCanal, a name now syn-onymous with the fight toclean up industrial waste.

For a while, the Super-fund was financed in partby a tax paid by manu-facturing and chemicalcompanies. The money

allowed the U.S. Envi-ronmental ProtectionAgency and its state part-ner agencies to clean uptoxic messes and, inmany cases, force compa-nies to cover the costs.

At its peak, the fundhad about $3.8 billion atits disposal. But in 1995,Congress allowed the taxrequirement to expire.Since then, the fund hasstruggled to stay viable.The U.S. EPA has lobbiedfor a return of the tax, butmanufacturers have ar-gued against it.

The Superfund got aone-time cash infusion of$600 million from the

2009 American Recoveryand Reinvestment Act,but the money has de-clined steadily since then.

That leaves sites suchas the Little Scioto in thelurch. The toxins are sobad there that the OhioEPA is advising peoplenot to touch the water inthe river between HollandRoad, just west of Marion,and Rt. 739 near GreenCamp.

In 2002 and 2006, riversediment was dug up andsent to a hazardous-wastefacility at a cost of about$8 million. However, thework stopped before halfthe job was completed.

The overall price tag wasset at $17 million.

The U.S. EPA namedthe Little Scioto a Super-fund site in 2009 andhoped the cleanup effortwould resume again in2012. But nothing hashappened.

Steve Snyder, whoworks in the Ohio EPA’sBowling Green office onenvironmental cleanup,said there has been somebehind-the-scenes work.The U.S. EPA has com-pleted a draft proposal forhow to clean that sectionof the river, and otherdocuments that have tobe completed before thework can be consideredfor funding are tentativelyscheduled to be done by2016, he said.

Even then, the LittleScioto will compete withthe 1,300-plus Superfundsites nationwide.

Andy Appelfeller, aMarion County farmerand longtime MarionCounty commissioner,said he has been involvedin conversations aboutthe Little Scioto for morethan a decade.

“You can’t fish, youcan’t swim, no anythingin the river,” he said. “Ithink it will eventually getdone. I hope in my life-time. I’d like to see it.”

larenschield@dispatch.com@larenschield

ADAM CAIRNS DISPATCH

Because previous cleanup efforts stalled, part of theLittle Scioto River remains fouled with toxic creosote.

CleanupFROM PAGE A1

Ohio Superfund sites

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCHSource: EPA

BELMONT

TUSCA-RAWAS

DARKE

BUTLER

HAMILTON

CUYAHOGA

LAKE

WARREN

CLARK

MIAMI

LAW-RENCE

WASHINGTON

PICKAWAY

MARION

LORAIN

MONROE

FRANKLIN

COSHOCTON

CARROLL

PORTAGE

SUMMIT

STARK

MUSKINGUMGUERNSEY

COLUMBIANA

ASHTABULA

MONT-GOMERY

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SCOTLAND, S.D. (AP) —Seven ethanol tank carsderailed and at least onecaught fire Saturdaymorning in southeasternSouth Dakota, the Burling-ton Northern Santa FeRailroad said.

No one was hurt, therailroad said.

The 98-car train de-railed about 6:15 a.m. in arural part of Bon HommeCounty, a region awash incornfields between thetowns of Scotland and

Lesterville, railroadspokesman Andy Wil-liams.

Williams said threetankers lost their contents.Officials aren’t yet surewhat caused the derail-ment over a small bridgethat spans a dry creek.

“It’s too early to tell,”Williams said. “It will beunder investigation.”

The derailed tanker carswere near the front of thetrain, said Lee Rettig of theBon Homme County

Emergency ManagementDepartment.

Rettig said one ruralroad was shut down asfirefighters who respon-ded from Scotland, Lester-ville, Menno, Tyndall andTabor worked to extin-guish the blaze. It was put out about 2:30 p.m., he said.

Burlington hazardousmaterials teams respon-ded to help with the clean-up. There are no water-ways near the crash scene.

Derailment

Ethanol tanker burns in South Dakota