'We’re done playing games'

ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Evans Landscaping owner Doug Evans has 60 days to start cleaning up illegal waste as part of his $550,000 settlement with the state of Ohio.

His first tasks are to install groundwater monitoring wells near the Little Miami River at his Round Bottom Road facility, and to dig 25-foot test pits for buried waste at his Broadwell Road site.

The 40-page consent order, signed by a Hamilton County judge on Sept. 29, contains specific cleanup-requirements to correct more than 20 years of environmental violations at three Evans landscaping and gravel facilities near Newtown.

"We’ve got three separate sites, all of them threatened the Little Miami Watershed, and from two of the sites we found actual leachate, leaching out into the water. So it was well past time to actually do something here," said Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.

Yost sued Evans last March, at the request of Hamilton County and the Ohio EPA. County records showinspectors cited "reoccurring problems," with the burial of waste, open dumping, scrap tires, illegal disposal of construction and demolition debris, and leachate runoff, at times into the Little Miami River.

"I don't want to drive people out of business if we don't have to. If we can convince them to follow the law, clean up this mess, straighten up and play fair with the rest of the community then … everybody's better off," Yost said. "But make no mistake about it, we’re done playing games. And if the long arm of the law needs to come down harder on this guy – it will."

Evans, 60, is a well-known entrepreneur on the east side who built a landscaping empire from a high school job hauling mulch from a pickup truck. He now employs 250 at operations that range from sand and gravel, equipment rental, snow removal, soil and firewood, ready-mix concrete, tree services and stone works.

But the part of his business that health inspectors have targeted repeatedly is the recycling of construction and demolition debris operation.

While Evans agreed to clean up the construction waste and debris, he still maintains that he did not break the law, according to the consent order.

"While Evans Landscaping did not always agree with positions taken in this enforcement action by the representatives of the agencies and their lawyers, the company respects and appreciates the professionalism shown during the settlement process," according to a statement from Evans. "Evans Landscaping has taken or will take the necessary corrective actions to address the alleged violations in accordance with the consent order."

Evans spokesman, Nick Vehr, could not immediately say whether cleanup has begun at the three sites.

The consent order sets a very specific timeline for the cleanup. Tasks that must be done within the first 90 days include:

Jason Gordon, who lives on Mt. Carmel Road adjacent to land owned by Evans, has concerns about the clean-up plan, in part, because Evans is allowed to use his own companies to remediate the sites.

"You’re trusting a convicted felon to be self-monitoring and it's just laughable … I don't think you can trust Mr. Evans to police himself," said Gordon, who has made numerous environmental complaints against Evans over the years and is currently suing him for alleged zoning violations.

Evans was released from prison last Decemberafter serving six months for minority contracting fraud, followed by several months of house arrest.

While Evans is allowed to use his own equipment in the cleanup, the consent order also requires him to use third-party professionals such as scientists and engineers to conduct groundwater testing and determine how much solid waste to excavate from test pits. But each step will be monitored by the Ohio EPA and Hamilton County health inspectors.

"We’re also using his companies to remediate, to fix the problems, to clean up the mess," Yost said. "The taxpayers aren't having to pay for that … he's got to actually own up to what he did, by fixing it."

If Evans breaches the agreement, he may be forced to pay $300 to $1,000 per day until the violations are resolved, according to the consent order.

"If you break a court order, you could be thrown in jail for contempt," Yost said. "We are going to be eagle eyes on Mr. Evans. I assure you that if we find he is not following that agreement to the letter, we’re going to be back in front of that judge saying, 'Judge, hold him accountable.'"

But Gordon worries that solid waste may impact his drinking water well and the Little Miami River nearby.

"The (Broadwell) site is directly along the Little Miami River - so as he's digging it out and exposing it, I’m sure that some more of it is going to get into the river," Gordon said. "And where's he going to dump it? It's already been proven that he dumps that stuff illegally."

Yost has been targeting environmental crimes across the state, including two cases in Clermont County.

Donald Combs of Milford is serving a four-year prison term for dumping thousands of pounds of trash in an illegal backyard landfill for years, including trash piles 20 feet high. Yost also sued Charles Carney in 2021 after Ohio Department of Agriculture investigators found livestock standing in foot-deep manure at his dairy farm and heard reports of hundreds of dead fish floating in Moores Fork stream.

"Our goal is compliance … what we want is to get to a place where people understand what the law is, and they follow it," Yost said. "But if they don't, then a lawsuit is a possibility and in the extreme case, a criminal prosecution."

Under the settlement agreement, if ground water testing determines that the Little Miami River has been impacted by waste at the Round Bottom Road site, then Evans must, "implement a remedy that is acceptable to the Hamilton County General Health District and the Ohio EPA."

Here is the full consent order:

Evans Settlement With Ohio on Environmental Violations by paula christian on Scribd

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