Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced that Gap, Pennsylvania-based environmental services firm Tier Environmental LLC must pay restitution and fines totaling $30,000 for exceeding the allowable amount of hazardous waste stored at its facility near Cleveland.
Tier Environmental pled guilty to a single felony charge of violating a hazardous waste permit issued under Chapter 3734 of the Ohio Revised Code. The company operated a hazardous waste transfer, storage and disposal facility in Bedford, Ohio, from 2013 through 2017.
On its LinkedIn page, Tier Environmental describes itself as offering “a comprehensive range of waste management, site remediation, industrial maintenance, transportation and lab packing services.”
In addition to the state of Ohio reporting the Bedford facility as having closed in 2017, the Tier Environmental website is no longer maintained, and Google lists its former Niagara Falls, New York, railcar and truck tank cleaning facility as being permanently closed.
Regulatory inspections by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and a criminal investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Criminal Investigation Division of the United States EPA found the company exceeded its permitted storage capacity by more than 130,000 gallons of hazardous waste between March and May of 2015.
The company was ordered to pay restitution of $20,000 to the two state agencies for investigative costs. The company also was ordered to pay a $25,000 fine, with $15,000 of the amount suspended.
In November 2018, Tier Environmental’s president and vice president pleaded no contest to charges of criminal endangering, a second-degree misdemeanor. The Bedford Municipal Court found them guilty and ordered each to pay a $500 fine, $3,100 in restitution and complete 40 hours of community service.
“This company had three times the permitted limit for highly flammable and dangerous hazardous waste, which is unacceptable,” states Yost. “This is an example of a bad company that didn’t follow the rules put in place to protect the public and environment.”