State files nearly 60 environmental law violation cases
The Journal News
COLUMBUS - The state attorney general's office has filed nearly 60 enforcement action cases against environmental law violators, Attorney General Marc Dann said, which bests his predecessors.
"Many of these cases had been accumulating for years without any real action being taken on behalf of the people, yet significant violations of the law kept occurring," he said.
"The defendants had more than enough time to correct themselves, but chose to ignore those orders," he said.
Dann, in an announcement last week, said the number of legal actions exceeds that of any previous attorney generals in their initial months on the job. The cases include:
• Six complaints of air pollution.
• Nine for water pollution.
• 11 based on hazardous waste and improperly operated landfills.
• Five against illegal tire dumps.
• Three regarding asbestos removal violations.
• Nearly a dozen focused on the cleanup of leaking underground storage tanks.
"This is quite an impressive start," said Jack Shaner, public affairs director for the Ohio Environmental Council, a statewide coalition of environmental advocacy groups.
"This is the sort of vigorous enforcement Ohio really needs to keep industries honest. This is the kind of enforcement we haven't seen in a while," Shaner added.
Dann said the complaints were facing deadlines set by the General Assembly five years ago.
Had he not filed the lawsuits, he said it would have prevented the state from collecting the maximum civil penalties available through the judicial process.
In some cases, Dann said, he is suing the owners of multiple underground storage tank sites in eight counties for violating the state fire marshal's Bureau of Underground Storage Tank Regulations, or BUSTR. Dann said the lawsuits involve sites operating as gas stations and properties that contain underground tanks no longer in use.
Dann said one case involves soil and groundwater contamination beneath the former Ecolotec Facility in Dayton, a hazardous waste facility. In 1998, Republic Environmental Systems (Ohio) Inc. and BRAC Inc. agreed to a consent order requiring them to address soil and groundwater pollution.
The state said the order is also binding on Edward McCabe, president of McCabe Engineering Corporation, and McCabe Corporation, which purchased Ecolotec Inc. on June 19, 1998.
Dann has asked the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court for an order asking the defendants to explain why they have not complied with the court's order.
In 1998, the city of Dayton announced that McCabe Engineering, a Richfield-based environmental remediation engineering company, would receive $456,000 in grants for removing 3.4 million pounds of chemicals from 636 and 716 N. Irwin St.
Nevertheless, the company has not finished the required groundwater monitoring at the site, said Dale Vitale, chief of the state's Environmental Enforcement Section. The company also needs to perform additional work to close the facility.
On Monday, Ed McCabe said he believes he's not covered by the consent decree. He noted that his cleanup company has spent more than $1 million on the property, and that his company has done "double" its required share of the cleanup.
The site, which includes at least four large structures, is vacant, McCabe said. The company had planned to build water treatment plants on the site and employ more than 30, but hasn't been able to secure a building permit from the city, he said.
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