T-L Photos/JENNIFER COMPSTON-STROUGH
Justin Moore, director of operations for the Cambridge, Ohio, office of Select Water Solutions, testifies in Belmont County Common Pleas Court on Monday. Moore is one of three witnesses expected to be called in a hearing regarding whether Austin Master Services in Martins Ferry is in contempt of court for failing to meet a cleanup deadline.
ST. CLAIRSVILLE — A court proceeding continues today to determine whether Austin Master Services LLC of Martins Ferry and related parties will be held in contempt of court for failing to meet a court-ordered deadline for cleanup of its fracking waste processing facility.
Scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Monday in Belmont County Common Pleas Court, presentation of the civil case did not begin until 11:10 a.m. Monday. Judge John Vavra announced that another, unrelated hearing would be conducted first while attorneys for the parties involved remained in talks in an effort to arrive at a resolution.
Assistant Attorneys General Douglas Curran, Fahimeh Kennedy and John K. McManus represented the state on behalf of Attorney General Dave Yost, who in March took legal action against Austin Master at the request of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resources. The company allegedly collected more than the permitted 600 tons of waste from drilling and fracking operations at its facility at 801 N. First St., Martins Ferry, including some radioactive waste.
Defense attorneys included Steven R.R. Anderson and John Kevin West for Austin Master and parent company American Environmental Partners Inc. as well as Kevin L. Barley for Brad J. Domitrovitsch, who along with AEPI was added to the amended complaint by Yosts’s office on May 1. Domitrovitsch is identified as the CEO, chief financial officer and chairman of the board of the parent company.
The state began by stipulating that Austin Master failed to remove an estimated 10,000 tons of solid and liquid waste from the former Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel mill where it operates by Vavra’s deadline of April 17. The plaintiffs said, to date, two rail cars of “hot waste” — a term for radioactive material — have been removed from the facility by a third party, liquid waste has been cleaned from the floor by employees and a tank of liquid waste was removed by a brine hauler.
The defense agreed with the stipulation that AMS is not fully compliant with Vavra’s order.
The state asserted that the purpose of its motion for contempt was not to punish anyone, but rather to prompt remedial action, noting that “the defendants do not have an impossible task at hand” and that they “have to be willing, really willing, to sell AMS’s permit to operate the Martins Ferry facility … to some business that has the technical knowhow and the funds to gte the facility cleaned up.”
The defense argued that Domitrovitsch and American Environmental Partners Inc. should not be held liable or in contempt since they were not a part of the origins complaint and had not been named in the case when Vavra set the cleanup deadline. Defense lawyers also maintained that it is impossible for Austin Master to complete the cleanup, since it has no cash on hand, has defaulted on its lease with 4K Industrial Park and has no assets that can be converted to cash. They said Domitrovitsch and the company have been “dogged” in their efforts to find a buyer to take over and clean up the facility.
They also said American Environmental Partners has no money at present and said the cost of cleanup will be “far greater” than either company can afford.
The state called its first of two witnesses Monday, bringing Justin Moore, director of operations for the Cambridge, Ohio, office of Select Water Solutions,to the stand. Select has a history of being both a vendor for and a client of Austin Master, and Moore testified that he was approached by an AMS employee about whether Select would want to remediate the waste on site and purchase Austin Master’s permit to operate the facility.
Moore told the court that while Select has the appropriate staff and equipment to perform the cleanup operation, the company does not wish to acquire Austin Master’s operations. He said this conclusion was reached after reviewing financial information provided by AMS, including a $100,000 discrepancy between what AMS said it owed Select for serves and what Select’s records indicate AMS owes.
He also said that Select estimated the cost of cleanup at $3.2 million, while Domitrovitsch provided an estimate of $6.5 million. Moore could not explain the difference between those figures. He did note that Select would “entertain” the idea of doing the cleanup work if it were paid up front.
Vavra asked Moore if he believed enough waste could be removed from the site to reach permitted levels within 45 days.
“That is likely,” Moore replied.
Following Moore’s testimony, Vavra declared a recess so that he could conduct criminal court proceedings in the afternoon. The hearing is set to continue at 9 a.m. today at the Belmont County Courthouse in St. Clairsville.