OHIO Charges: Man dumped waste from gas drilling

Associated Press

DOVER, Ohio

Federal prosecutors have charged a man with illegally dumping gas-drilling waste into a tributary of the Chagrin River in Northeast Ohio.

They allege that 45-year-old James Hidey of Dover directed brine into a storm-water sewer twice in 2008 while working for the drilling company Great Plains Exploration.

A criminal information alleges the toxic waste flowed to a brook and into the river. The two-count complaint says the dumping occurred after gas wells were completed in two east Cleveland suburbs, Mayfield Heights and Highland Heights.

A message was left Friday for Hidey’s federal public defender.