Company responsible for Vienna oil spill improperly tapped water line for family members

VIENNA

A Vienna Township trustee says the news that members of the Kleese family that runs the Kleese Development brine-injection facility ran a waterline to two or three of their homes nearby raises additional questions about the company’s trustworthiness.

“Now that we know this with the water, what other issues are they skirting?” said Trustee Heidi Brown.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the company was the source of a 2,000-gallon oil spill discovered two weeks ago. But state officials have not yet said how the spilled occurred or whether the company was at fault.

Matt Kleese, field operations manager for Kleese Development, told a county water department official he ran a waterline to his house and the house of another family member, said Scott Verner, assistant sanitary engineer.

The Vindicator obtained a copy of a letter Atty. Jim Brutz sent to an attorney for Kleese Development on Friday saying someone within the company or family violated the rules of the county sanitary engineering department by running a waterline to two homes on Sodom-Hutchings Road a short distance north of the injection facility in an area not served by county water.

People there use private wells, some of which were tested in recent weeks to determine whether the Kleese spill contaminated their water. The tests indicated their water was OK.

Brutz, an assistant county prosecutor who represents the sanitary engineer’s office, wrote the Kleese family has “21 days in which to disconnect these improper tie-ins.”

Read more on the matter in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.