More illegal dumping found on West Carrollton land

Local health officials plan to issue an order to the city of West Carrollton to clean up a site where materials were illegally dumped and buried.

The site on Hydraulic Road — land owned by the city near the Great Miami River — has been closed while West Carrollton officials seek to determine the extent of the problem and to clean it up.

City officials also want to find who is responsible for dumping the solid waste, pipe, "other metal" and construction and demolition debris found Friday. It was the second time in a month materials were found illegally dumped at the site, officials said

West Carrollton City Manager Brad Townsend said Tuesday officials plan to talk with “the contractor we believe is the guilty party,” but declined to name that business.

Illegal dumping ranges from a fourth-degree misdemeanor to a felony, depending on the circumstances, said Tom Hut of Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County.

The illegal actions are not “in any way an imminent health threat to anybody,” said Bill Wharton of the health district.

“The materials that are out there are materials that aren’t allowed to be out there because it’s not a demolition site,” he added. “Those (illegal) materials they’ve got out there will need to be taken to a landfill to be properly disposed of.”

Electric conduits, wood and "numerous mattresses" were uncovered Friday after hours of digging on a portion of about 30 acres the city is redeveloping for recreational use, said Carl Enterman, West Carrollton chief enforcement code officer.

The Ohio Revised Code states only “clean hard fill” — asphalt, concrete, stone, brick, tile or block — can be dumped and buried at the site, said Tom Hut of the health district.

The order to the city will likely be sent this week, officials said.

Health officials will “give us some additional requirements to either get rid of the fill or to sort through it all to make sure there’s nothing in it. We haven’t decided which route we’re going to take right now,” Townsend said.

“We’re obviously going to go back on the contractor we believe is the guilty party, but we’re still investigating that. Obviously, this was done without our knowledge but we are going to take care of it,” he said.

Four contractors have been using the former Appvion waste water treatment site as a location to dispose of fill as the city redevelops the land, Enterman said. He would not disclose who those contractors are.

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