SALEM, Ohio — A judge ordered an Ashtabula County business owner to pay $200,000 for polluting the environment by illegally burning and mishandling oil field waste.
Richard Morrow was ordered Jan. 27 by Judge Thomas Harris, of Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court, to pay the civil penalty, according to a press release from the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
Morrow owns RWC Properties and Circle M Oilfield Transportation, both located in Williamsfield, Ohio.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency twice reported seeing Morrow in 2017 burning waste in large storage tanks. Later inspections by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources noted large areas of soil stained by waste leaking from the tanks.
Morrow and his businesses didn’t address the violations, despite repeated orders from the Ohio EPA and ODNR. In 2018, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office sued Morrow and his companies for unlawful transport, storage and open burning of oil field waste, the release stated.
