WARREN — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has blessed the legacy Republic Steel site with a clean bill of health, a distinction that makes the large swath of land even more marketable for redevelopment.

Owner BDM Warren Steel Holdings LLC has completed remediation of the site on Pine Avenue SE and received from the state agency a covenant not to sue, which protects the owner or future owners from being legally responsible to the state for further environmental investigation and cleanup.

The protection becomes part of the property deed and transfers to future owners. It can last forever as long as the property is used and maintained according to the terms of the covenant, according to the state.

It applies to about 825 acres that BDM Warren Steel Holdings is in the process of donating to the Western Reserve Port Authority, which plans to market the land — stretching almost two miles along Pine Avenue SE and including portions of Warren, Niles, Howland and Warren Township — for redevelopment.

“It has water, sewer. It has everything on it,” port authority CEO John Moliterno said. “Everything is already there and now you get this clean bill of health from the EPA. It’s very important for the future of the site.”

It was January when the port authority announced it and BDM were in talks about BDM donating the land — one of the largest, if not the largest, shovel-ready sites in Ohio — to the port authority.

Last month, Moliterno said BDM wanted to give the port authority 200 more acres adjacent to the site. The port authority plans to accept that land, too, but not without it passing an initial environmental assessment, which is happening now.

That land would be used to connect the 825 acres to points west, including a prime industrial development and a transportation corridor in Lordstown.

Moliterno said Thursday the full 1,000 or so acres could transfer within the next couple weeks.

The property was used to produce multiple forms of steel from 1912 to 2012. The last steel producer was RG Steel, which sold the mill to BDM in 2012, when RG Steel went bankrupt. BDM immediately started looking for a new buyer. With none in sight, BDM auctioned parts of the mill in spring 2013 and began tearing down buildings and started to market the land. The blast furnace, the last remaining one in Trumbull and Mahoning counties, was torn down in 2017.

BDM hired a certified environmental professional to assess the property and address areas of environmental concern. Soil was excavated, relocated and consolidated to meet standards. The property owner also will monitor groundwater to verify that surface-water conditions in the Mahoning River remain within standards, according to the state.

The property can be used for commercial or industrial uses, but groundwater cannot be extracted from the site, according to the state.

“This is positive news. This is now one of the largest, if not the largest, shovel-ready site in Ohio,” Guy Coviello, president and CEO of the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, said. “With this release from the EPA, there is nothing stopping the effort to bring development to that location.”

Also earlier this year, an affiliate of MegaJoule Ventures, an energy storage sector investment company that is part of BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren, purchased the former Republic Steel office building at 999 Pine Ave. SE for $750,000.

MegaJoule is redeveloping the building for product development and additional space for other companies affiliated with BRITE, Megajoule President Herb Crowther has said publicly.