Maryland man indicted on felony charges of open burning, dumping

By Ed Runyan

The material being stockpiled can ignite on contact with air or water, U.S. officials said.

WARREN — A Trumbull County grand jury has indicted a Maryland man on 12 counts of open burning and dumping in the stockpiling of between 8,000 and 10,000 tons of a manufacturing byproduct called “steel swarf” on the grounds of Diversified Resources Inc. on Refractories Drive in Champion.

Edgar C. Knieriem Jr., 62, of Cockeysville, Md., must appear for arraignment on the unclassified- felony charges at 1:30 p.m. next Wednesday before Judge W. Wyatt McKay.

The indictment accuses Knieriem of dumping or burning the material on two dates in 2004, five dates in 2005, four dates in 2008, and Jan. 14, 2009.

Knieriem is charged both individually and as owner of Diversified Resources.

Local officials could not be reached to ask what the penalty is for an unclassified felony, but the Ohio Department of Transportation said it is up to four years in prison and a fine of $25,000 on each count.

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, filed charges against Knieriem in Warren Municipal Court in March.

Knieriem pleaded innocent to the charge and was released after signing for a personal- recognizance bond.

The Trumbull County Health Department filed a notice of violation against the company in May 2008 for failing to remove the material.

The Diversified Resources building is a former brick-making factory 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-management district, said some of the piles of swarf are now exposed to the weather because the company was dismantling parts of the former factory to sell the steel, Villers said.

The factory walls and roof formerly protected the material from the weather and kept it from leaching into the groundwater, Villers said.

It appears the dismantling of the building, which is across state Route 5 from the former Copperweld Steel mill and visible from the highway, ended sometime in the spring.

Swarf is powdery leftover or byproduct of certain manufacturing operations. Some of the steel swarf Diversified Resources has accepted since 1993 came from companies such as Crossman (a BB pellet manufacturer) and Caterpillar (heavy equipment), Villers said.

Swarf can ignite on contact with air or water and produce flammable hydrogen gas, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.