Tuesday, February 28, 2012WARREN, Ohio -- Patriot Water Treatment and the city of Warren wastewater treatment plant responded Monday to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s claim that the agency knowingly ignored Ohio law when it issued permits in 2010 for the company to operate, characterizing the state’s Feb. 13 motion for summary disposition as reading “more like a bad novel than a legal filing.”
The document represents the latest volley in the ongoing legal battle between state officials and Patriot and Warren over Warren’s ability to accept wastewater from Patriot, which treats wastewater used in hydraulic fracturing. Warren’s existing wastewater permit was to expire at the end of January but since a new permit was not approved, the city can operate under the conditions of the old permit.
The document, filed Monday by Patriot and Warren with the state’s Environmental Review Appeals Commission in Columbus, responds to the Feb. 13 filing by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, which charges that the state makes “extraordinary claims, without corroborated evidence, that accuse its own client, Ohio EPA,” and the administration of former Gov. Ted Strickland’s “of knowingly engaging in illegal activity and misconduct.”
The state’s filing asserts that George Elmaraghy, Ohio EPA water division chief, testified that he knew before any permits were issued to Patriot and Warren that his agency was ignoring the Ohio Revised Code. The filing further claims Ohio EPA issued the permits despite having regulatory concerns because former Gov. Strickland’s office put the agency “under extreme intense pressure to get things turned around.”
Tom Angelo, Warren wastewater director, questioned why, if Ohio EPA knowingly violated the law, are the individuals involved, including members of EPA management, still in their jobs.
“Any claim that Ohio EPA was under pressure to issue permits is simply not credible,” said Andrew Blocksom, Patriot’s president. He went on to point out that while Ohio law only gives Ohio EPA six months to act on permitting applications, Ohio EPA took almost two years to issue permits to Patriot and Warren. “If a two-year permitting process is considered extreme pressure, Ohio should just tell industry that Ohio is closed for business,” he remarked.
Patriot Watter and Warren’s combined filing also contends that the state lacks the proof to back-up its claims, that the other six Ohio EPA witnesses deposed don’t corroborate the state’s claim and that, to date, Ohio EPA has not produced a “single document or paper trail indicating” Elmaraghy “documented any illegal activity” as part of his review, either with superiors or division staff, at any time during the Warren and Patriot permitting process.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.