EPA: Salad dressing runoff floods Ohio homes

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio EPA official says creamy ranch dressing mixed with sewage and storm runoff in the flooded basements of at least 10 Columbus homes.

Sewage from T. Marzetti Co., a Columbus-based salad dressing maker, overwhelmed the Columbus storm-sewer system during heavy rains last week. A resident reported the problem to the state’s Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday.

The EPA’s Michael Dalton says the agency suspects that the factory’s pipes merge with nearby homes, but aren’t wide enough to handle extra water during a storm.

Neighbors have complained to the EPA over the last 30 years about discharges from the city sewage line that serves Marzetti into a creek.

A telephone message left for a company representative wasn’t immediately returned on Wednesday.