Friday, March 30, 2012WARREN, Ohio -- Patriot Water Treatment LLC’s 25 employees will spend the next two weeks cleaning out the company’s plant on Sferra Road in Warren before joining the ranks of Ohio’s unemployed.
The plant treats brine water produced from oil and gas drilling activity and sends it to the city of Warren's wastewater treatment plant. The city's permit renewal from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which takes effect April 1, does not allow the city to accept the water from Patriot.
“It’s unfortunate our company’s going to be damaged and our employees affected,” said the company's president, Andrew Blocksom, at a news conference Friday afternoon.
The announcement of the plant’s closing comes after Trumbull County Common Pleas Judge Andrew Logan ruled Friday morning that it is out of his jurisdiction to place a hold on the permit renewal. Logan granted the OEPA's request to dismiss Patriot's request for an injunction.
Blocksom said he is “disappointed” by the judge’s decision.
In his ruling, Logan declared the Environmental Review Appeals Commission, which denied Patriot’s request for a hold on the permit last week, as the proper forum for hearing matters pertaining to the OEPA.
Blocksom takes Patriot’s case before the commission once again on April 24 to argue for a chance to begin operating again.
“If we can get a positive ruling, which we feel that we should get, from ERAC on the 24th, then we can fire right back up again and only have the damage for the month,” Blocksom said.
April Bott, the attorney representing Patriot, said the company will lay out their entire case about how much Patriot and it’s employees will lose, even parts that have already been ruled on by the commission.
“It sends a chilling message to business that you can do everything right then have your permit pulled,” Bott said.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.