COLUMBUS, Ohio – An order by the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission will allow the Leavittsburg Dam to be demolished.
The commission Wednesday granted a motion by Anne Vogel, director of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, to dismiss an appeal from Warren Township trustees that sought to stop the dam’s razing.
The commission found that the township didn’t appeal the OEPA decision within the required 30 days and that the township lacks standing because it isn’t aggrieved or adversely affected by the dam removal.
The OEPA had approved a permit last December for Trumbull County MetroParks to demolish the dam, one of six low-head dams slated for removal in the Mahoning River Corridor Revitalization Plan developed by Eastgate Regional Council of Governments. Trumbull County MetroParks, which owns the dam, secured grant funding, beginning in 2022, to complete the dam’s removal.
Warren Township appealed the permit approval last February.
Earlier this month, the 11th District Court of Appeals overruled a motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the demolition. That followed a Trumbull County Common Pleas Court judge’s ruling dismissing a case brought by the township and Trumbull County commissioners to stop the removal.
The commissioners and township had argued that there were risks to removing the dam, including riverbank instability, tree collapses, roadway damage and instability of an older dam in the area. They also alleged that if the dam is removed and water levels decrease, residential septic systems submerged in the river and discharging into the water will be exposed, leading to sewage discharging onto the land.
The ruling from the Environmental Review Appeals Commission says the township may appeal the decision in Franklin County Court of Appeals.