The Ohio State Controlling Board released additional funding to complete the cleanup of the illegal ARCO dump in East Cleveland, Senator Kenny Yuko (D-Richmond Heights) announced Monday.
Six million dollars had already been appropriated to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the state’s main operating budget last June 2017 to clean up the ARCO site, which was originally established as a recycling facility for construction and demolition debris.
In January 2017, the EPA issued a violation to ARCO Recycling for operating an illegal waste landfill.
Then, in October, the controversial landfill caught fire.
A month later, authorities raided a building connected to one of the owners of the ARCO site.
The property belonged to George Michael Riley.
Riley was also named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the State of Ohio against Arco Recycling.
The document stated Riley:
"Endangered the environment and the community of East Cleveland by allowing over 200,000 cubic yards of construction and demolition debris (C&DD) to be unlawfully disposed on real property located at 1705 Noble Road in East Cleveland, Ohio (the Arco Site). Defendants actions have resulted in a pile of C&DD rising over the homes that are merely yards away from the piles. Without the protections afforded by obtaining a license to dispose of C&DD, there is no way to ensure that this pile of debris has not caused, and is not currently causing, environmental harm."
