Laura Olah's toxic nightmare has a new setting: Northeast Ohio.

The Merrimac, Wis., resident is troubled because the U.S. Army is developing a plan to burn old buildings contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at the now-closed Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant in eastern Portage County.

The PCBs, found in the paint used decades ago, have the potential to create health-threatening dioxins and furans.

``It's a really big issue -- in Wisconsin, in Ohio and across the country,'' said Olah, who has fought to block the burning of the paint-contaminated old buildings at the Badger Army Ammunition Plant in Baraboo, Wis.

PCBs, a family of 209 compounds used in electrical transformers, are suspected of causing cancer. Exposure also can cause liver damage, skin irritation and reproductive and developmental problems.

The use of PCBs was banned in the United States in 1978.

Burning PCBs can result in releases of dioxins and furans into the air and water. Dioxins and furans are probable human carcinogens, and their toxicity can be 100 times higher than the toxicity of PCBs.

Because of protests there, the burning of PCB-contaminated buildings in Wisconsin has been put on hold.

But the Army and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have been working to determine whether there is a safe way to proceed at Ravenna, although no decisions have been reached.

Army project manager Mark Patterson said it's hoped that a plan can be developed and approved by next year to deal with the PCB paint in hundreds of buildings.

That could require extensive air modeling, detailed risk assessment, special air sampling and perhaps burning the old buildings in small numbers to minimize the environmental and health concerns that could be created by burning PCBs, Patterson said.

Ohio EPA spokeswoman Eileen Mohr said her agency is aware of the Army's plans and will review them, although state approval is not required.

The Army would need an open-burning permit from the Akron Regional Air Quality Management District, which handles air matters for the Ohio EPA.

Patterson said the Army has been aware of a potential paint problem at Ravenna since 2000.

The Army found evidence that PCBs were frequently added to oil-based paints in the 1940s and 1950s, he said.

Tony Martig, a Chicago-based spokesman for the U.S. EPA, said approval of the Ravenna arsenal plan by the federal agency would not set a precedent for burning buildings at other Army bases.

The Army must prove to the EPA that a burn would create ``no unreasonable risk,'' Martig said.

Under federal law, open burning of waste is permitted if the PCB concentrations are 50 parts per million or lower, he said.

The Army is seeking an exemption from that limit.

PCB levels have been detected at 1,500 to 1,700 parts per million in Load Lines 2, 3 and 4 at Ravenna, Patterson said, and testing is continuing.

Mohr said tests on paint from Load Line No. 11 at Ravenna showed concentrations as high as 5,200 parts per million, or 104 times the federal limit.

At the Wisconsin Army base, the PCB levels are even higher: as many as 22,000 parts per million, or 440 times the federal limit.

The Army would like to proceed with burning, Patterson said, because that is the safest way to destroy buildings that are contaminated with dangerous explosives.

In 2003, an Army contractor burned two load lines -- No. 6 and No. 9, each with as many as 50 ammunition-assembly buildings on 40 acres -- that contained safe levels of PCB-laced paints, Patterson said. But several buildings in those load lines with higher PCB concentrations were not burned and are still standing.

Dealing with the PCB-based paint could increase Army demolition costs by as much as 10 percent, he said, adding that testing for PCBs in the paint has been ``a tedious and pretty difficult process.''

Even so, the Ravenna arsenal is further along in dealing with the PCB paint issue than any other Army facility, he said.

No other demolition option for the old buildings is as safe as open burning, Patterson said.

But the Army's open burning proposal has come under under heavy fire from activist groups.

``It's a bad idea... and the public health is at risk from open burning of PCBs,'' said Craig Williams of theKentucky-based Chemical Weapons Working Group.

His group was one of 67 that last spring sent a letter to the EPA opposing the open burning in Wisconsin.

``The mere thought of open burning PCB-contaminated materials is preposterous,'' Williams said. ``It should be totally out of the realm of anyone's acceptability.... Everything in science and common sense concludes that open burning is completely unacceptable from the public health standpoint. It's totally beyond the scope of rationality.''

There's no way to capture or control the cancer-causing toxins likely to be produced from burning PCB-based paint, he said.

Walter Adams, a spokesman for the Portage County Environmental Roundtable, said his organization is troubled by the Army's plans and intends to seek answers as to the health threat.

``We want to know what is likely to be emitted if these buildings are burned, what the potential health hazard might be and where these pollutants would likely go,'' he said.

To date, the demolition of old facilities at the Ravenna arsenal is perhaps 30 percent complete, Patterson said.

Most of the 21,419-acre complex has been turned over to the Ohio National Guard for training. The Army still has demolition and cleanup work to do on the final 1,481 acres.

The Ravenna arsenal made artillery and mortar shells during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. It closed in 1971.

The Army expects to spend $80 million to $90 million and to take an additional 10 years to clean up environmental problems there.