After a protracted legal battle, Ohio has been awarded a $14.7 million judgment against four defendants stemming from a hazardous waste treatment facility that was not shut down properly.
Attorney General Richard Cordray’s office announced the judgment on Oct. 16. It was awarded in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Oct. 9.
Republic Environmental Systems Ohio Inc., formerly known as Ecolotec, stopped operating the facility in Dayton in 1995. After Republic failed to properly close the site, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency obtained a court order in 1998 requiring the company to close the facility in compliance with state hazardous waste regulations.
The site is within the city’s source water protection area. Soil and ground water samples indicate it remains contaminated.
When the owners failed to comply with the court order, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office filed a motion in July 2007 on behalf of the EPA asking the judge to find the defendants in contempt. In February, the court ruled that both the current and former owners were liable in contempt.
“For years, the defendants in this case refused to accept responsibility for their own inaction,” Cordray said in a release. “This result should send a clear message that respecting court orders that protect the health of our citizens and our environment must be a priority.”
The money will be split between the state’s Hazardous Waste Cleanup Fund and the Ohio Environmental Education Fund’s Clean Diesel School Bus Fund.
Other defendants include Republic Environmental Systems, Inc.; BRAC, Inc.; McCabe Engineering Corp. and Edward M. McCabe.
In 2007, then-Attorney General Marc Dann cited the case as among those that had been accumulating for years without any real action being taken “yet significant violations of the law kept occurring.”
Dann said the defendants had more than enough time to correct the problems, but chose to ignore those orders.
Cordray spokesman Ted Hart said he cannot explain the length of time it took to resolve the case. He said the situation was complicated by the transfer of ownership in 1997, and there were numerous communications between the state and the defendants over the years with differing viewpoints over who should be responsible and to what degree.
Information from: Dayton Daily News, www.daytondailynews.com
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