Man faces charges in demolition of building

By Ed Runyan

WARREN — A Maryland man charged with 12 counts of open burning and dumping — for purportedly stockpiling thousands of tons of a substance called steel swarf at his building in Champion Township — has pleaded innocent.

Edgar C. Knieriem Jr., 62, of Cockeysville, Md., appeared in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, where bond was continued at $2,500 on the condition that Knieriem not allow the building to be further demolished.

Harold Firster, a Trumbull County sheriff’s deputy, filed charges against Knieriem in Warren Municipal Court in the spring alleging that a demolition company was taking down parts of the former General Refractories building and exposing piles of swarf to the weather.

Knieriem’s company is known as Diversified Resources International and is located at the end of Folsom Drive, just west of the Kent State University Trumbull Campus and just across the state Route 5 bypass (Warren Outerbelt) from the former Copperweld Steel mill.

Exposing swarf to the rain could cause it to ignite and produce hydrogen gas, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Knieriem and his attorney, Michael Bowler of Akron, told Judge W. Wyatt McKay that no such demolition will occur without a proper permit.

Jeff Adler, an assistant county prosecutor, said Knieriem had a demolition permit, but the permit expired in September 2008. Demolition workers continued tearing the building down after September 2008 and removed portions of the building not allowed by his permits, Adler said.

Adler, who works in the prosecutor’s civil division, is working on the case with Bill Danso, an assistant prosecutor in the criminal division.

Adler said he’s not aware of a previous criminal case involving an alleged environmental matter of this type before in Trumbull County.

If convicted on the charges, Knieriem faces up to four years in prison on each charge.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is still investigating an allegation that workers at the plant also released thousands of gallons of a gel-type substance onto the ground at the plant in late September.

Knieriem’s next hearing will be at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 27 before Judge Andrew Logan.

After the hearing, Knieriem had no comment on the allegations.

runyan@vindy.com