Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost ordered a Cincinnati business owner who used his company, Evans Landscaping, to illegally discard waste at three sites to pay $550,000 and clean up the mess.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office (AGO) says that Doug Evans, owner of Evans Landscaping, may have polluted the Little Miami River due to his illegal discarding.

“When it comes to protecting the state’s waterways, we do not just go with the flow,” Yost said. “Illegally dumped waste doesn’t just sit there on the land — it breaks down into toxins that find their way into the water. This remedy will make sure that doesn’t happen, and the fine will hit him hard where it hurts — his wallet.”

The civil penalty stems from a lawsuit filed by the AGO in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. The suit maintains that Evans, through Evans Landscaping and three other businesses he owns, violated Ohio laws regulating the disposal of solid waste and construction and demolition debris at three separate properties.

During multiple inspections over several years, health district officials saw that parts of demolished buildings, garbage and other solid waste dumped or buried at the three sites not licensed as a facility for disposal.

Evans has agreed to clean up his properties and correct violations according to a plan authorized by Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Hamilton County health district. According to the AGO, if Evans fails to comply with any requirements of the order, he will be liable and have to pay additional penalties.

• Evans will build a cap over areas where construction and demolition debris were illegally disposed of to prevent water from reaching the debris and causing harmful chemicals to leach out at the Mount Carmel, Ohio, site.
• Under the supervision of the Ohio EPA and health district, Evans will dig out and remove illegally disposed waste at the Broadwell, Ohio, site.
•  Evans will conduct groundwater monitoring to ensure that waste from his property is not affecting groundwater quality or the Little Miami River. Evans will perform the necessary remediation at the Round Bottom, Ohio, site if it is.

According to Cincinnati-based news station WCPO, in 2018, a jury found Evans and his company guilty of wire fraud. Evans served six months of a 21-month sentence as a result.