Wednesday, February 02, 2000
Critics detail OEPA claims
Polluters given breaks, they say
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Documents submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say a lack of response to Cincinnati-area polluters proves the Ohio EPA isn't doing its job.
Sierra Club spokeswoman Marilyn Wall said Tuesday that the survey of violations that goes back at least 22 years — and evidence of Ohio EPA inaction — generally came from public records.
COMPANIES IDENTIFIED
AS GETTING BREAKS
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In documentation sent to the Chicago regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency, critics said these companies' pollution violations received lenient treatment from the Ohio EPA:
• AK Steel, Middletown.
• Bay West Paper Corp., Middletown.
• Celotex, Lockland.
• Cincinnati Specialties Inc., St. Bernard.
• Cinergy's Beckjord power station, Clermont County.
• ELDA landfill, Winton Place.
• Hilton Davis Co., Bond Hill.
• Moellering Industries Inc., West End.
• Monsanto landfill on Bond Road, Whitewater Township.
• Morton International Inc., Reading.
• Phthalchem Inc., Winton Place.
• Rumpke landfill, Springdale.
• Willard Industries, Northside.
• Worthington Custom Plastics Inc., Mason.
Data sent to EPA did not indicate the severity of the alleged violations, some of which involved only paperwork. The point was to enumerate the Ohio EPA's failure to enforce a variety of federal rules under federal Clean Water, Clean Air and Resource Conservation & Recovery acts.
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Named firms have state-administered federal permits to pollute under the Clean Air, Clean Water or Resource Conservation & Recovery acts.
However, the Ohio EPA doesn't require their compliance or punish their lawbreaking, Ms. Wall said. She and other activists are asking the EPA to withdraw the authority it delegated to the Ohio EPA to administer those federal laws.
Should the EPA end its partnership with the state agency, it could cost the Ohio EPA more than $35 million a year in federal grants and possibly 400 jobs, Ohio EPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said.
Ms. Wall and her colleagues said the Ohio EPA allows too many firms to emit too many smog-related pollutants, it is too permissive when reviewing new or excessive discharges into local streams, and it fails to bring polluters into compliance with hazardous-waste rules.
Citing applicable federal regulations, critics also accused the Ohio EPA generally of weak monitoring and inspection programs, and a reluctance to fine violators.
Being included in the industrial survey rankled Cincinnati Specialties President Jim McKenna. “They go back an awful long way to find a fault,” he said.
One allegation involved a missing 1977 permit to install new equipment when his St. Bernard chemical plant belonged to Sherwin Williams. He said that permit was not required because pollution controls exceeded standards then. Instead, Ohio issued a permit to operate.
However, federal rules changed in the mid-1990s and he has applied for the permit to install, to paper over the regulatory gap for equipment that has been running 22 years.
The survey was produced by Ohio Citizen Action, the Ohio chapter of the Sierra Club, Rivers Unlimited and the Ohio Public Interest Research Group.
It was the latest evidence sent to the EPA's Region V in Chicago, where officials confirmed Monday that they were initiating an investigation into how the Ohio EPA sets standards, issues permits and enforces federal pollution limits.
It will be the first time the EPA has looked at all three programs in any one state at one time. Central to the probe will be this accusation from an August 1999 document submitted by the activists:
“Ohio EPA has, step by step, altered its mission and trained its personnel that they exist to satisfy the "cus tomer,' the industrial permit seeker that the Ohio EPA is supposed to be regulating.”
The Ohio EPA also has rejected the allegation that it has been too cozy with polluters, saying state programs always have passed annual EPA reviews required for continued funding.
Termination of the federal-state relationship is unlikely. The EPA never has revoked any Midwestern state's authority, saying improvements have been negotiated when regulatory weaknesses have been identified.
The Ohio EPA is not solely to blame, said the Sierra Club's Ms. Wall. She also faulted agencies to whom Ohio EPA delegates its regulatory authority: Hamilton County's Department of Environmental Services (DES) and the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD).
Ms. Wall dismissed DES air pollution enforcement efforts as “business friendly” and complained that MSD fines are too low to intimidate potential violators.
That's unfair, responded Harry E. Schwietering, supervisor of DES permits and enforcement section.
Mr. Schwietering said his staff investigates every complaint and sends a notice of violation to about 250 businesses a year. Most firms respond with a plan to cure the documented pollution problem, he said, and his colleagues confirm that promised changes suffice.
He sends about 25 air pollution cases a year to the Ohio EPA for enforcement because they are major violations or because companies contest the charges. Few are resolved in the polluters' favor, Mr. Schwietering said.
After the EPA completes its review, the Ohio EPA, critics and the public will have opportunities to comment on the findings before a final report is written. That is expected to take months.
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