The estate of a Lake County man whose illegal handling of dredged material polluted the East Branch Chagrin River has agreed to pay $300,000 for restoration of the waterway under a proposed settlement brokered by Attorney General Dave Yost.
The case dates to 2001, when Jerome Osborne and his company, Osborne Co., first dredged the river without a permit, ultimately dumping eight spoil piles of dredged materials – each 8 to 20 feet high – in the riverbed and along the riverbank, extensively damaging the waterway.
“This polluter dumped eight mountains of muck along one of Ohio’s scenic rivers and left the mess for someone else to clean up,” Yost said. “The money from this agreement will reverse years of damage and restore this section of the river to pristine condition.”
Spoil piles accelerate erosion and can expose aquatic species to toxic substances, including phosphorus, when sediment resettles into the river.
Although the dredging ended in 2007, the spoil piles remained until the village of Kirtland Hills removed all but one in 2013. The last pile, known as the Oliva pile, remains there today in a section of the river that runs next to Baldwin Road.
A lengthy court battle with the state ensued, culminating in a civil penalty of $224,240 and a court order requiring the defendants to submit a plan for removing the Oliva pile. The defendants paid the civil penalty in October 2022 but never removed the Oliva pile.
An April 2023 inspection discovered even greater damage to the river, both at the site of the Oliva pile and downstream – the result of cumulative years of neglect.
Under the proposed agreement with the state, Osborne’s estate will pay $300,000 to the Chagrin River Watershed Partners instead of completing the court-ordered cleanup itself. The nonprofit group will use the money to remove the Oliva pile and reverse erosion caused by the environmental violations.
A full copy of the proposed settlement is available on the attorney general’s website.
