BREAKING NEWS: Lawsuit Filed Against Piqua in Delaware County Court
Vol. III, No. 107 - Lawsuit filed in Delaware County puts the Battery Burning Issue into the Courts
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Last week, a group of Piqua and Miami County residents filed a lawsuit suing the City of Piqua and several companies over toxic air pollution caused by the burning of lithium-ion batteries. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware County Common Pleas Court this week, alleges that for five years, thousands of pounds of batteries were burned at a former water treatment plant just outside of Piqua, releasing dangerous chemicals into the air and harming neighbors’ health, properties, and trust in local government. One of the defendents in the case, Bensen Fire and Safety Consulting, Ltd., is headquartered in Delaware County, north of Colubmus.
At the center of the dispute is the city’s old water treatment plant at 9300 State Route 66, which the city owns but leased out to a private business called Energy Safety Response Group, LLC, also known as ESRG. Along with another company, Bensen Fire & Safety Consulting, the group says these companies directed a series of battery burns that sent toxic smoke into nearby homes and businesses. Residents claim they were exposed to chemicals like hydrogen fluoride and heavy metals, which can cause serious problems including difficulty breathing, burning eyes, headaches, and even heavy metal contamination in their blood.
According to the lawsuit, the burning was usually called “firefighter training” by city officials and the companies involved. But neighbors say that most of the time, there were no firefighters present and nobody told them exactly what was happening or warned them about the dangers. The complaint argues that labeling the battery burning as training was a cover-up to avoid telling people about the real risks. Documentation provided in the case says that, over five years, the number of burns and the amount of batteries destroyed far exceeded the limits of any permits, with single events sometimes involving up to 40,000 pounds—the equivalent of thousands of car batteries burned at once.
The plaintiffs, who include dozens of Piqua households, describe how they noticed thick, smoky plumes, strange chemical smells, and suffered from a range of health problems during the battery burning events. One nearby business had to close for an entire day because the fumes made it impossible to work safely. At least 17 formal complaints were made to regulators between May and September 2023, but those efforts did not stop the burning.
Testing was eventually done after the Ohio EPA and the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency stepped in last September. They uncovered violations that led to the operation being suspended, and the EPA said the activities were “beyond the scope” of what permits allowed and caused a “public nuisance.” Some soil and water tests by the city claimed there was no dangerous contamination, but local residents and independent experts doubted these results, asking for more transparency and pointing out that proper monitoring hadn’t happened during the five-year period. The lawsuit claims there is still no full accounting of exactly how much pollution leaked out or how many people may have been harmed.
The complaint paints a picture of frustration and fear among neighbors that has been palpable for years. People say city officials and company representatives repeatedly brushed off their complaints or dismissed concerns as misunderstanding, insisting the smoke and explosions were simply part of routine firefighter training. Residents are accusing the city, ESRG, and Bensen of purposely misleading them to hide the fact that they were regularly burning toxic materials close to homes and businesses on land that is enviornmentally sensitive.
Besides the health problems reported—including burning throats, headaches, and even contaminated blood—the plaintiffs say property values in the area have gone down and some are afraid the pollution may have found its way to the Great Miami River, posing further threats to drinking water and wildlife. The issue, according to the lawsuit, could have wider impact across Ohio and even nationally, as communities all over the country face new risks from the growing use of lithium-ion batteries.
The residents bringing the case are asking for compensation for medical problems and property damage, money for ongoing medical monitoring, and improvements to restore the damaged area. They also want a permanent halt to future battery burning unless strong safety steps and full public notification are put in place. The suit asks for punitive damages against the companies involved, but not the City of Piqua or the Montgomery County Public Health Department (the agency that houses the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency) due to certain legal protections. The legal team for the plaintiffs is also seeking to have a medical monitoring fund established and for the court to order thorough environmental clean-up.
Among the claims made in the suit are negligence, nuisance, trespass, battery, emotional distress, strict liability, conspiracy, recklessness, and fraud. The plaintiffs argue that the burning was reckless, unsafe, and done with disregard for ordinary safety rules, emphasizing that even if some burning was permitted for research, the scale and lack of care shown by the companies and city made the operation unreasonably dangerous.
The suit makes clear that the community’s trust in its leaders has been shaken, especially because many believe the truth about what happened was intentionally hidden for years. Now, with their case moving forward in court and a jury trial requested, affected neighbors are seeking not just answers but protection against future harm.
It’s important to recognize that this lawsuit represents just the first step in what will no doubt be a long and complicated legal matter. And residents that are looking for answers to fully account for the actions that took place through this battery-burning saga may get a better understanding of the actions of all involved through this lawsuit.
The litigation does not come as a surprise, as the City of Piqua’s Commissioners Committee on the Fire Training Facility recently suspended their operations with the knowledge that this lawsuit was pending. The Committee’s Chairman David Roth was quoted a recent Piqua City Commission meeting as saying:
“After careful evaluation, we have determined that several key factors are limiting our ability to effectively fulfill our mandate at this time. The primary reason is the existing threat of litigation and potentially becoming entangled in a civil suit filed against those people and entities that were involved in the decision-making process to allow the battery burning to occur at the fire training facility.
“We are citizen volunteers who simply wanted to help our city during a period when many questions were being asked of our elected officials. The threat of litigation has also caused us to question the sustainability of the committee’s work under such circumstances, when civil litigation is a fact-finding process.”
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