Court Orders Cleanup Of Hazardous Waste At Cleveland Warehouse

CLEVELAND — A Cleveland company has been ordered to cleanup hazardous waste stored at a warehouse site in West Boulevard. The owner has also been ordered to pay a $284,000 civil penalty for illegal hazardous waste storage.

“This crumbling warehouse was crammed full of hazardous junk that put the neighboring community at risk,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “It’s time for the man who made the mess to accept responsibility and get it cleaned up.”

The warehouse is used by Fluorescent Recycling, a company owned by George Dietrich. Yost said the company moved fluorescent light bulbs to the warehouse on Neville Avenue in Cleveland, but rarely paid to have the waste disposed of properly.

Fluorescent light bulbs contain small amounts of mercury which can be released as a hazardous vapor if the glass tubing within breaks.

The Ohio EPA cited Dietrich in 2016 for operating a hazardous waste facility without a permit, after an inspection at the warehouse found more than 2 million spent fluorescent bulbs piled on the floor, Yost said.

A fire broke out in the warehouse in 2018 and the Ohio EPA and U.S. EPA worked together to remove more than 400 tons of fluorescent bulbs and debris. Yost's office said the warehouse grounds are still contaminated with mercury.

This week, Common Pleas Court Judge Deborah Turner ordered Dietrich and his companies to submit plans for a full cleanup to the Ohio EPA. The court order also bars Dietrich from receiving or storing any additional waste at the warehouse.

An attempt to reach Dietrich for comment was unsuccessful.