Source: http://www.ohio.com, March 1, 2016
By: Bob Downing
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office has filed a lawsuit against four companies and two individuals tied to hazardous waste problems along Brandywine Creek in northern Summit County that began five years ago.
Named defendants are Bedford Anodizing Co. and Bedford Anodizing Realty Co., both based in Hudson, and New Bedford Metals LLC and New Bedford Management LLC, both based in Cleveland. Also named were Timothy Schmidt of Lakewood and John Gibbons of Bay Village.
Efforts to contact the defendants were unsuccessful.
According to the suit, the defendants’ now-unoccupied facility, a former metal-finishing facility at 7860 Empire Parkway in Macedonia, was contaminated with hazardous wastes and that contamination leaked to Brandywine Creek on numerous occasions.
The suit seeks a civil penalty of up to $10,000 a day from each defendant for each violation. It also seeks to order the defendants to prepare a permanent and safe closure plan for the site and to provide adequate insurance coverage.
The 21-page suit lists 10 alleged violations and says the defendants operated an unlicensed and unpermitted hazardous waste facility.
The state is seeking a halt to all stream pollution and an order for the defendants to comply with state rules.
The suit was filed on Monday in Summit County Common Pleas Court. It has been assigned to Judge Alison McCarty.
“Defendants’ illegal actions of storing and disposing hazardous wastes and discharging industrial wastes into a tributary of Brandywine Creek caused a public nuisance,” the suit says.
The problems at the Macedonia site began on March 18, 2011, when the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency responded to a call and found the plant discharging aluminum hydroxide to a ditch and storm sewer to local creeks that drained to Brandywine Creek, according to the state. The agency conducted three inspections and discovered numerous hazardous waste violations at the plant.
Violation notices were sent to Bedford Anodizing and Bedford Anodizing Realty, and the U.S. EPA undertook an emergency cleanup that was completed in June 2011.
The Ohio EPA filed additional violations in May 2012.
The two companies filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2013.
On April 11, 2013, the Ohio EPA found liquid waste leaking from the plant’s northeast corner into a ditch that drained to Brandywine Creek. The material was highly corrosive hazardous waste.
In June 2013, the two companies ceased operation in Macedonia. New Bedford Metals LLC acquired the property and placed a lien on the assets. The initial bankruptcies were then dismissed.
In August 2013, the U.S. EPA returned to stabilize conditions at the plant. Due to budgetary problems, the federal agency did not complete its activities and ceased its work in October 2013.
From June to December 2013, the initial companies removed scrap metals, tanks, vats and other features. That also resulted in additional releases of hazardous wastes, according to the suit.
On Dec. 5, 2013, there was a greenish cloudy waste that caused a fish kill in a Brandywine Creek tributary, the suit says. Testing showed the discharge came from the Macedonia plant and was hazardous.
The Ohio EPA issued hazardous waste violation notices to the two companies on Feb. 14, 2014. Additional EPA inspections showed no improvements in connection with the alleged violations.
Additional notices for violations and for more releases to Brandywine Creek were issued by the EPA on April 29, 2014.
The agency also notified the New Bedford companies that they were legally responsible for the plant’s cleanup.
The U.S. EPA returned from May to August 2014 and completed an extensive cleanup effort that included removing hazardous waste liquids from tanks, vats and containers, plus hauling more than 2,000 tons of neutralized sludge and contaminated soils to a permitted facility for disposal.
The Summit County health department cited the companies in early 2015 for accepting solid wastes.