SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Despite repeated complaints for nearly a year about excessive dust, noise and a growing mound of solid waste at a Sycamore Township solid waste processing business, the problems continue, according to residents living next to the work site, teachers at a local school, and government regulators who investigated their complaints.
The business — operated by Aztec Container Services — receives truckloads of construction and demolition debris, sorts it, and then hauls it away to landfills.
A fence, which appears to have bent in some parts under the weight of the waste up against it, separates the mound of construction and demolition material from the Village Green Mobile Home Park.
Some of the homes are just a few feet from the fence.
"Force them to clean it up or move," Jennifer Hahn, a kindergarten teacher at nearby Stewart Elementary, wrote in a complaint to the Hamilton County Environmental Services on Jan. 16.
Complaints filed by Hahn and others since June 2023 have prompted inspections by Hamilton County Public Health, the Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency and Sycamore Township.
Last June, Sycamore Township sued Aztec Services and property owner St. John Holdings for failing to fix alleged code violations.
According to the complaint, those violations include excessive noise and dust.
The township claims the mound of waste is too high. It's not supposed to be higher than the eight-foot high fence unless it's covered, according to the complaint.
Photos taken over the last eight months by the township, local residents, government regulators and the WCPO 9 I-Team show the mound of waste is much higher than eight feet and it's not covered.
"It's not safe," Village Green resident Tish Jones told the I-Team on Tuesday.
Jones said other problems continue, especially when workers move the material around stirring up dust that covers their property.
"It makes your eyes water," Jones said. "It burns your nose. As it starts to heat up for summer, the smell is just unbearable."
Aztec Container Services Vice-President Johnathan Miller — who spoke on behalf of the facility — said the company is trying to work "to the best of our ability" with residents, government regulators and Sycamore Township.
"There's nothing that can hurt anybody in that pile," Miller told the I-Team on Jan. 29.
Since then, Miller has not responded to written questions the I-Team emailed to him.
"We're trying hard to get it cleaned up," Aztec Services President Albert Meininger told the I-Team on Wednesday.
Meininger identified himself as the owner of Aztec Services and St. John Holdings.
St. John Holdings bought the property in 2006, according to Hamilton County Auditorproperty records.
"You guys need to look a little bit at the good side instead of all the negatives," Meininger said. "The dust, we've had firehouses on that, and we haven't had one dust complaint except for that guy who lives behind us. There is no dust coming in there."
Meininger was referring to Village Green resident Gabriel Gonzalez, who lives in a home just a few feet from the fence surrounding the St. John Holdings property.
"They don't care about us," Gonzalez said. "They don't care about the community."
Meininger and Miller told the I-Team that the business pays Village Green to use water from their fire hydrant.
They said the company sprays the water on the mound to reduce dust.
The business also uses a street sweeper to clear dust off School Road.
On Feb. 7, the I-Team shot video of a bulldozer digging into the waste pile stirring up clouds of dust that moved off-site.
When crews saw us shooting video, they stopped working.
We left the area and returned 15 minutes later.
The crews were back at work, digging into the debris and creating more dust.
A long history of complaints
In 2016, nearly 10 years after St. John Holdings purchased the property at 7601 School Rd., Sycamore Township sued the company for violating township ordinances.
The complaint alleged that St. John violated township zoning ordinances by creating excessive noise, dust, odor and other problems "objectionable to the enjoyment" of nearby residents and businesses.
St. John denied violating zoning codes.
In 2018, St. John reached an agreement with Sycamore Township, according to court records.
The written agreement — available on the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts website — required the company to get the approval of Sycamore Township's Zoning Commission and Board of Trustees before adding height to the mound of construction and demolition debris.
And, according to the agreement, the company wasn't allowed to move heavy equipment and material from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
St. John agreed to pay court costs, according to the agreement.
Village Green residents said the company also put a covering over the mound of waste to reduce dust.
But years later, residents say, the dust, debris and smell got worse.
In April 2023, a Sycamore Township inspector found the business — operated by Aztec Services — violated township ordinances by failing to properly contain waste, creating excessive noise, dust and odors.
The township gave the owner and operator 21 days to fix the problems.
But the violations weren't fixed, according to the lawsuit.
In June 2023, Sycamore Township filed a civil complaint against St. John Holdings and Aztec Services asking for a preliminary and permanent injunction against the waste processing site.
The township asked for damages of "$500 per day, per violation, for every day the violation continues" since Sycamore Township notified the companies of the alleged violations in April 2023.
Several weeks after Sycamore Township sued St. John Holdings and Aztec Services, Gabriel Gonzalez filed a written complaint about the work site with Hamilton County Environmental Services (HCES).
"The reason for this letter is to explain and ask for your help with a problem that affects and harms all the people who live in Village Green," Gonzalez wrote.
He described how dust from the operation was "getting worse" and creating more concern about the impact the airborne material would have on the health of families living there.
The I-Team requested and received complaints filed with HCES and other documents describing concerns about the site and how government regulators responded to them.
WCPO redacted personal information about private citizens, including their names, home addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.
A week after Gonzalez filed his complaint, two Southwest Ohio Air Quality Agency (SWOAQA) employees visited the business.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agencycontracts with SWOAQA for work relating to air quality, according to OEPA.
"The roadways were dry, and dust was visibly coming off the pile while loading occurred," according to notes written by a SWOAQA employee. "The only form of water used on site comes from a sprinkler connected to a garden hose."
The SWOAQA employees encouraged Aztec VP Miller to use water trucks, but Miller said there weren't any available, according to SWOAQA worker's notes.
At the time, Miller said Village Green would let him use water from the mobile home park's fire hydrant, something he was able to do months later.
During two follow-up visits in July and August, SWOAQA employees saw dust leaving the facility during operations.
In August, two minutes after SWOAQA employees started taking photos of "a large amount of dust from operations," crews stopped moving debris and used a fire hose to water the mound, according to a SWOAQA employee's notes.
One day later, Sycamore Township Planning and Zoning AdministratorJeff Uckotter emailed SWOAQA more photos of dust leaving the work site at 7601 School Rd.
During visits in September and November 2023, SWOAQA didn't see dust leaving the facility.
Residents also complained that the business was accepting material with asbestos and putting it on the mound with other waste.
Aztec's Miller insisted that wasn't true and government regulators never found evidence of regulated asbestos material at the site, according to records provided by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and other regulators who visited the property.
"Mr. Miller stated that they only accept construction debris from (people) who do the proper testing," a SWOAQA employee wrote. "Each load is also inspected when it arrives at the facility before it is dumped. I then me (sic) with Mike Moss, a certified Ohio Contractor Supervisor at the facility who also explained that he inspects the waste load and anything materials he finds to be suspect is set off to the side and tested."
The SWOAQA employee inspected their debris and found no "suspect" material, according to his notes.
But that appeared to do little to ease concerns of some Sycamore Township officials.
In November, Uckotter emailed SWOAQA officials.
"The Township has ongoing concerns about the dust emissions," he wrote. "The hose water does not appear to fix the problem. We have ongoing concern that the issue is not properly managed given the visible dust - visible to the naked eye."
In his email response, SWOAQA Environmental Compliance Specialist Josh McCord wrote that a new permitting process will "have requirements for dust suppression and record keeping."
"They should be addressing the concerns," McCord wrote.
Two months later, more residents and their advocates filed complaints against the waste processing site.
They complained about excessive dust, the increasing height of the waste mound that seemed to be pushing up more against the fence surrounding it, and stormwater runoff from the property, which some residents said smelled like fuel looked like it had oil in it.
In recent weeks, the I-Team photographed pools of what appeared to be stagnant water in the rear of the property closest to the mobile homes. Some of it had material floating in it. One pool looked rust-colored.
On January 8, prompted by residents' complaints about the size of the mound of waste, Hamilton County Public Health inspected the property.
Inspectors found that the mound of debris was "at least 3x more than the proposed figure" the business had in their application for becoming a licensed construction and demolition debris processing facility, according to county records.
"As the owner of the property, you are responsible for maintaining the property without creating a public health nuisance," according to the health department's letter to Aztec. "You must immediately cease acceptance of waste onto the property until such times as you are able to operate within the confines of your proposal."
The property was declared a "nuisance" and required to comply with regulations by the end of January.
On January 10, once again prompted by residents' complaints about stormwater runoff from the work site, Hamilton County Public Health visited the waste processing business.
A health inspector found that industrial material was exposed to stormwater that had the potential to be discharged off-site, according to OEPA records.
Aztec Services didn't have the proper permit to discharge stormwater associated with industrial activities, so OEPA issued a Notice of Violation to the company and required them to get a permit and file a stormwater pollution prevention plan.
According to OEPA, investigations by SWOAQA "determined the facility to be a minor source of air emissions."
Aztec has agreed to "voluntarily" get a permit requiring additional measures to reduce dust and other air pollutants, according to OEPA.
The deadline for submitting public comments on that permitis March 3.
OEPA also said the company submitted a "work practice plan" that must be approved before receiving the permit, according to the agency.
"Aztec Meinco, is legally allowed to exist and was present before there was a law in Ohio regulating these types of businesses," Hamilton County Public Health spokesman Mike Samet wrote in an email response to the I-Team's request for comment. "While a new facility of this type would not be able to operate in this location, this business is “grandfathered” and allowed to remain. As required by law, this company has applied for a license to operate and is thus far working with us cooperatively to bring the operation into compliance with the new rule framework."
Tish Jones and other residents living near the Aztec work site consider that another opportunity to create a safer and cleaner community.
"The problem is a lack of concern," Village Green resident Tish Jones said. "I'm just trying to get people to send their comments in in order to get something done about this."
