State Department of Environmental Protection has completed its testing for arsenic in Butler's South Side and is now waiting for the final results.

Eric Gustafson, regional manager for the Environmental Cleanup Program in the Meadville office, said Wednesday that so far arsenic levels at the site of the former Franklin Glass Co. in the Kaufman Drive area haven't surprised or worried DEP representatives.

The state began testing at the 30-acre site in May after a DEP worker saw some strange looking soil and took a sample to the DEP's Meadville office in April.

The worker had been helping members of the Butler-Freeport Rails to Trails group with soil testing for a bridge project.

Initial tests showed higher levels of arsenic than allowed by residential standards. That level is 12 parts per million. One test site along Coal Run measured 1,800 ppm, but the DEP has pointed out that was near a storage site for sand and other glass making materials.

Where the factory property has been developed, most arsenic levels are in the 12 ppm to 30 ppm range, Gustafson said.

The DEP has since held two public meetings in Butler on the arsenic issue, one in May and another in June, to talk to South Side residents about any possible health problems from arsenic exposure, as well as the state's plans to test arsenic levels.

"We have completed the first round of testing across the developed parts of the site," Gustafson said, adding that testing will continue in the wooded area around the former glass factory site.

Franklin Glass, which opened its doors in 1887 and burned down in the 1970s, used several sites in the woods in the area to store sand and other raw glass manufacturing materials, as well as waste. These areas can still be seen from the air and at least one is considered a popular hang out for city youth.

Arsenic was used in glass production, eliminating bubbles in molten glass.

The company that DEP hired to do the soil tests, ENSPEC Environmental Safety Consulting of Carnegie, is completing its data checking and results are "beginning to trickle in," Gustafson said.

The DEP will then pass results to the state Department of Health for a review of the health aspects of the study. DEP's final report should be ready by September with another public meeting in Butler to be scheduled in October or November.

"We tested the ball fields in Father Marinaro Park right away after our public meetings and found that they had the lowest arsenic levels in the area because of the dirt that has been brought in and spread on the site for sporting events," Gustafson said.

He added the DEP has been in touch with The Lighthouse Foundation, as well as the Butler County Housing Authority, as both organizations are working on building or upgrading housing on the glass factory site.

"If we had found any high levels of arsenic, we would have contacted them," Gustafson said.

Butler Mayor Maggie Stock said because of the early tests that showed arsenic levels below hazardous levels for residential housing, the city has issued a work permit to the authority to work on the Franklin Court houses.

However, Stock said she remembers DEP representatives saying the report would have been completed by now.

"I guess we'll have to wait," she said.