Thursday, March 19, 2009
Piles of steel swarf are exposed to the weather, which could lead to fire or leaching into the groundwater.
STAFF report
WARREN — Edgar C. Knieriem Jr., 61, of Cockeysville, Md., has surrendered to Warren Municipal Court to answer to charges related to piles of steel powder he is keeping on the grounds of a former Champion factory.
Knieriem, owner of Diversified Resources Inc., waived a preliminary hearing and agreed to have his case bound over to a Trumbull County grand jury on the unclassified felony charge of open burning or open dumping.
He also pleaded innocent to an unclassified misdemeanor charge of violating an order of the health department. His next hearing will be 10:15 a.m. May 1 before Judge Terry Ivanchak.
He is free on a personal recognizance bond, meaning he didn’t have to post any money to be released.
Both charges were filed by Detective Harold Firster of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department, an environmental enforcement officer whose pay comes from a grant from the Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste Management District.
Firster filed an arrest warrant for Knieriem on March 10 with Warren Municipal Court.
The detective said the two charges relate to between 8,000 and 10,000 tons of a powdery manufacturing byproduct called steel swarf that is being stored on the grounds of Diversified Resources Inc. on Refractories Drive.
The former brick-making factory is at the end of Folsom Drive, about three-quarters of a mile west of the Kent State University Trumbull Campus.
Robert Villers, director of the solid waste district, said Knieriem disobeyed orders from the Trumbull County Health Department to remove the material, which he says can catch fire and leach into the groundwater.
Some of the piles of swarf are now exposed to the weather because the company has been dismantling parts of the former factory to sell the steel, Villers said.
The factory walls formerly protected the material from the weather, Villers said.