CINCINNATI — A federal jury will decide whether a greenbelt near the former William C. Beckjord coal plant along the Ohio River should remain a mature forest to shield residents from buried toxic ash, and if its new owner must pay $3.3 million for destroying hundreds of trees there.
A group of Pierce Township residents called Neighbors Opposed to Pit Expansion filed the lawsuit in 2019 against Missouri-based Commercial Liability Partners, which purchased the 1,443-acre site from Duke Energy in February 2018.
“In 2019 CLP had full title to the property, and they started basically on a process of selling anything that they could make money off of, and that included selling the hardwood trees,” Pierce Township Board of Trustees Chairman Allen Freeman said. “We were walking the site, and you could just literally see how the tree line was just shaved off. The backs of trees that were just cut straight down.”
NOPE claims the company violated a 1986 agreement with the then-owner, Cincinnati Gas & Electric, to inform the public about contaminated waste disposal and preserve the greenbelt as a “substantially undisturbed” buffer from the coal plant.
“That buffer is not just the trees above but the root system below so it holds these hillsides where you’ve got these ash pits,” Freeman said. “As for the top part, it’s beautiful, and it adds to the community, but it also shields the view from an area like the ash pits that will always be bare.”
A jury trial began Nov. 9 in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati for the first part of the case, which deals only with the greenbelt, and is expected to last a week.
Neighbors are expected to testify about the loss of tree canopy, small flowers and forest floor, and habitat for wildlife such as wild turkeys, and the growth of invasive plants such as honeysuckle.
"We wanted it to be left alone," NOPE attorney Dave Altman said in his opening statement.
WATCH: Beckjord neighbors sue for $3.3 million
CLP owns the greenbelt land, but NOPE controls the easement. In 2019, CLP cut down roughly 250 walnut, maple, cherry and pine trees, some that had grown 50 feet tall, and cut logging roads through the forest.
"Substantially undisturbed state is the main term we're arguing about," CLP attorney Gregory DeGulis said in his opening statement, noting that words such as "mature forest" and "trees" are not mentioned anywhere in the settlement agreement.
The first witness, former Pierce Township trustee and NOPE steering committee member Christopher Knoop, said the citizen group was formed in 1985 when Cincinnati Gas & Electric began purchasing residential and farmland properties to expand its coal ash pits.
Both the township and citizens threatened lawsuits, but reached an agreement in 1986. One of the conditions in the settlement was that a greenbelt be preserved.
"We agreed virtually from the beginning ... to not disturb this property," Knoop said. "It was an important part of the character of the township."
He described a mature canopy of trees with seedlings and saplings growing and a clean forest floor without invasive species, before CLP purchased the land and removed many large trees.
Built in the 1950s as a coal-burning giant, the Beckjord plant pumped electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses across Southwest Ohio for decades.
In 2014, Duke Energy closed the power plant, where more than 5 million tons of coal ash were buried in unlined, man-made ponds along the Ohio River.
Coal ash is the waste left over when coal is burned to make electricity. It contains toxic heavy metals, creating a serious threat to groundwater, soil and rivers.
At the Beckjord plant, the coal ash ponds are right next to the river, a source of drinking water for more than 5 million people in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The ponds also sit next to Clermont County’s public drinking-water wells.
The W.C. Beckjord Station, a closed Duke Energy power plant located 20 miles east of Cincinnati, contains more than 10 billion pounds of toxins that are packed into ponds along the banks of the Ohio River.
In a separate part of the case, which a different jury will hear at a future trial, NOPE accused CLP of failing to disclose information about how it dug up and moved toxic coal ash around the site, and using an underfunded corporate shell, New Richmond Development Corp., to protect the company from liability.
Clermont County also filed a separate lawsuit against CLP, former owner Duke Energy, and another owner Sept. 24, to force them to clean up toxic coal ash before it contaminates the region’s drinking water supply.
While the current trial focuses on the greenbelt, it is unclear whether the jury will hear about the current environmental conditions or CLP’s eventual plans for the property. At one point, CLP had considered building a concrete plant at the site, according to court documents.
The WCPO 9 I-Team has been reporting on issues and incidents at the site for more than six years.
Residents complained about blowing clouds of coal fly ash in July 2020. Fly ash is the by-product of burned coal. According to the EPA, the powdery substance may contain low levels of radioactivity and contaminants such as mercury, cadmium and arsenic.
During demolition in February 2021, the main Beckjord smokestack crashed into the Ohio River, which is the main water source for 5 million people. Cleanup of the submerged debris took months.
Leftover coal ash is stored in unlined ash ponds in the river’s floodplain. They are directly adjacent to and just 1,000 feet away from the county’s primary drinking water wells for 145,000 residents.
"Quite frankly, it’s been a disappointment every step of the way,” Freeman said in a June interview with WCPO. “You end up with what we have now, which is a mess.”
Local officials also worried about the lack of disaster drills and an outdated emergency action plan that could leave police and fire departments unprepared if something happened at the Beckjord site.
Pierce and Anderson Township trustees wrote Gov. Mike DeWine a joint letter in 2025 asking for help. They received no response until the WCPO 9 I-Team reached out on their behalf. Since then, Pierce Township first responders have practiced a tabletop exercise at the site.
The county also wants updated safety plans and regular emergency preparedness training; better and required groundwater monitoring; and a court-ordered plan to keep contaminants away from the public water supply.
The Ohio EPA conducted an inspection in May 2026 and found the facility in significant noncompliance due to violations at two ash ponds, and issued a notice of violation in June.
“We have an opportunity right now utilizing these two lawsuits to really get a do-over. In 1956, the community made a decision that, that was going to be a power plant, and that power plant has left us with a legacy of pollution and ash,” Freeman said. “The point now is to get a chance to get it right, to correct the errors of the past, so we need to focus on not just what we see today but how it is going to have an impact in 30, 40, 50 years from now.”
