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What are your thoughts on this whole ordeal? Or more importantly, what would you consider to be an acceptable resolution to it?
IMO, the entire city was duped by what they thought was really happening there. This includes the city administration as well as the commissioners, planning commission, etc. I believe the regulatory agencies (RAPCA and OEPA) really dropped the ball here by issuing permits without conducting any inspections and even when questioned, still responded that everything was acceptable even though they had never personally inspected the facility or their operations.
I believe that since ESRG was operating outside of the scope of their permits, they are responsible for any damage caused by said operations and operating with improper permits (whether intentional or not) generally constitutes as a breach of lease and would leave ESRG liable for all testing and remediation efforts needed.
I know the city said the EPA doesn't think any further testing is necessary, but to assure the PEOPLE who are extremely concerned, they should explore the option of having a third party, independent company come out to take soil and water samples and test them for any known hazardous materials. If any are discovered they will need to be addressed. And because this was all due to a breach of lease, it would be completely appropriate to send the bill to ESRG.
I think what would be the most satisfactory handling of it to me is basically for this city to step up and admit, the ball was dropped somewhere. They don't need to admit it was their fault (plus I don't entirely agree that it was anyway), but they need to admit SOMEBODY screwed up somewhere and they need to apologize for the mishandling of it all and pledge to be more diligent in the future. That would go a long way. The people are really sick and tired of things happening and then the city providing nothing but canned responses, statements that they are "unable to discuss the situation further", and refusing to acknowledge that something happened that shouldn't have and they will strive to do better. My $.02.
IMO, the entire city was duped by what they thought was really happening there. This includes the city administration as well as the commissioners, planning commission, etc. I believe the regulatory agencies (RAPCA and OEPA) really dropped the ball here by issuing permits without conducting any inspections and even when questioned, still responded that everything was acceptable even though they had never personally inspected the facility or their operations.
I believe that since ESRG was operating outside of the scope of their permits, they are responsible for any damage caused by said operations and operating with improper permits (whether intentional or not) generally constitutes as a breach of lease and would leave ESRG liable for all testing and remediation efforts needed.
I know the city said the EPA doesn't think any further testing is necessary, but to assure the PEOPLE who are extremely concerned, they should explore the option of having a third party, independent company come out to take soil and water samples and test them for any known hazardous materials. If any are discovered they will need to be addressed. And because this was all due to a breach of lease, it would be completely appropriate to send the bill to ESRG.
I think what would be the most satisfactory handling of it to me is basically for this city to step up and admit, the ball was dropped somewhere. They don't need to admit it was their fault (plus I don't entirely agree that it was anyway), but they need to admit SOMEBODY screwed up somewhere and they need to apologize for the mishandling of it all and pledge to be more diligent in the future. That would go a long way. The people are really sick and tired of things happening and then the city providing nothing but canned responses, statements that they are "unable to discuss the situation further", and refusing to acknowledge that something happened that shouldn't have and they will strive to do better. My $.02.