At the same time, MIE is facing the possibility of legal action from the state attorney general's office over the company's ongoing failure to comply with the OEPA.

MIE president Scott Elliott insists that the company doesn't handle manganese.

But, investigators have a long list of complaints against the company and not all of them are related to the handling of manganese.

 

MIE processes many different industrial waste materials from manufacturing facilities for sizing, briquetting, crushing, drying or packaging for reuse. For example, the company crushes product for Eramet.

 

Elliott said on Monday that he hasn't been notified yet of any pending action by the Ohio attorney general's office.

 

"The EPA typically is very fair and judicious in their implementation of their regulations and their requirements and if they find we have been remiss in something we have done typically they will issue us a notice of violation and then they give us some kind of a time period in which to correct it. And, since ours have all been paperwork related or related to reports and making mistakes I really don't anticipate there's going to be a big issue if they do bring about some sort of enforcement action," Elliott said.

 

It's the second time MIE has faced legal action from the state over their failure to comply. In 1997, the company was taken to court by then-attorney general Betty Montgomery on behalf of the OEPA. In a 12-page consent order signed in Washington County Common Pleas Court by Judge Susan Boyer, the company was ordered to pay penalties, which amounted to more than $22.6 million by October 1998 – less than one year later.

 

Elliott claims that MIE complied fully. But one state official referred to the company as "recalcitrant" in their stubborn resistance to compliance. For his part, Elliott says reporting requirements have become increasingly more stringent.

 

Despite the plans for corrective action drawn up and agreed to by both parties in the 1997 court order, 11 years later several of the violations have not yet been remedied to the satisfaction of OEPA.

 

He says if the AG's office does file a complaint against MIE, he is confident it will be dismissed in its entirety.

 

Late yesterday the Ohio Attorney General's office stated that they are also conducting a criminal investigation into MIE operations.