Ohio AG accuses Greene County landscaping company of polluting waterways in newly-filed lawsuit

BELLBROOK — The Ohio Attorney General’s Office is suing a Greene County business for allegedly polluting waterways.

Attorney General Dave Yost has accused Tom’s Mulch and Landscaping in Bellbrook and its owners, Judd and Laura Powell, of endangering “the environment by illegally discharging pollutants into an unnamed tributary of Sugar Creek, into Sugar Creek, and into an unnamed wetland,” all of which are waters of the state, according to a lawsuit filed in Greene County Common Pleas Court Wednesday.

The business also operates a composting facility on its property on Ferry Road.

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The lawsuit claims the business and its owners violated the Director’s Final Findings and Orders, discharged pollutants to the water of the state without a discharge permit, violated Ohio’s Water Quality Standards, failed to operate in accordance with authorizing documents, and failed to manage leachate.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) inspected and discovered several violations of the state’s water pollution laws in March 2019.

The first notice of violation letter was sent to Judd Powell in May 2019. It requested that the business apply for an individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and “relocate the mulch and compost material that is immediately adjacent to the unnamed tributary and Sugar Creek.”

10 days later, the business sent a letter in return saying it was working on the permit application, but the lawsuit claims it was never submitted.

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Two other notices were sent to the owners in 2020 and 2021, and the Ohio EPA spoke with one owner about the violations in 2020, but the lawsuit claims they never took any action.

The owners signed orders requiring them to take several actions later in 2021, but the Ohio EPA said they failed to do so. In June 2022, an inspection showed that no work had been done to address the issues.

Each claim in the lawsuit states that the owners are liable and subject to penalties of up to $10,000 per day for each violation.

Yost is asking for the business, among other things, to submit the applications for the proper permits, cease operations of the composting area and relocate the materials to an approved area, and pay all costs and fees.

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