CINCINNATI — A high-profile Newtown business owner has been ordered to pay $550,000 for using his four companies to illegally discard waste at three sites.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said Doug Evans, through Evans Landscaping and three other businesses, violated Ohio laws regulating the disposal of solid waste and construction and demolition debris at properties on Mount Carmel Road, Broadwell Road and Round Bottom Road.
The attorney general's office said the illegal dumping may have polluted the Little Miami River, noting one-fourth of the money will be awarded to the Little Miami Conservancy.
"When it comes to protecting the state’s waterways, we do not just go with the flow," Yost said in a press release. "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."
As part of the consent order worked out with Yost's office and approved by the court, the release said Evans agreed to clean up his properties and correct violations according to a plan authorized by Ohio EPA and the Hamilton County health district. The agreement includes digging out and removing waste on Broadwell Road, conducting groundwater monitoring at the Round Bottom site and building a cap over areas where debris was illegally disposed on Mount Carmel.
If Evans does not comply, Yost's office said he will immediately be liable and have to pay additional penalties.
This isn't the first time Evans and his company have been in trouble. In December 2018, a jury found Evans and his company, Evans Landscaping, guiltyof defrauding the city of Cincinnati and the state of Ohio by taking millions in demolition work that was supposed to go to minority and small business contractors. Evans served six months of a 21-month sentence for minority contracting fraud.
Despite the conviction, Evans collected more than $400,000 from local government entity contracts and public purchases of items in the following years.
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