SYCAMORE TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Gabriel Gonzalez's family lives in a mobile home a few steps from a large mound of construction and demolition waste in Sycamore Township.
He and other residents at the Village Green Mobile Home Park said they're tired of the noise, excessive dust and stormwater runoff from the site operated by Aztec Services Group.
"It's very frustrating," Gonzalez said. "They don't care about us. They don't care about the community."
Gonzalez showed us pages of letters written by "30 to 40" residents complaining about the business.
Video shot by WCPO Sky 9 shows some of Aztec's waste material has moved up against the fencing that's supposed to hold it in.
"We have a lot of issues with this," Village Green resident Tish Jones said.
Jones said she's concerned about the more than 150 children who walk by the work site on their way to and from school. She said the mobile home park's management hasn't helped.
A Village Green manager said she wasn't authorized to comment.
"The problem is the lack of concern," Jones said.
The waste recycling site at 7601 School Road is owned by St. John Holdings, according to Hamilton County property records.
Aztec Meinco and Meinco have been listed as companies applying for permits required on the site, according to OEPA records. St. John Holdings and Aztec Services Group use the same business address on William P. Dooley Bypass in Cincinnati.
"The community behind me that have registered complaints, we have tried to work with them to the best of our ability," Aztec Container Services Vice-President Johnathan Miller told the I-Team.
Miller, who spoke on behalf of the recycling site, said none of the waste is hazardous.
"There's nothing that can hurt anybody in that pile," he said.
But Village Green residents aren't the only ones concerned about it.
Last June, Sycamore Township sued Aztec Services and property owner St. John Holdings for failing to fix alleged code violations.
According to the complaint, township employees documented violations that included excessive noise from 5-6:30 a.m.
The recycling operation also violates township codes by creating too much dust, according to the complaint.
The township claims the mound of waste is not supposed to be higher than the eight-foot high fence unless it's covered.
During recent visits, the I-Team saw the mound is much higher than the fence and it's not covered.
"We're trying to work with Sycamore Township," Miller said.
Sycamore Township officials declined to comment for this story because of the active lawsuit.
Miller insisted that Aztec had significantly reduced the size of the mound until a recent stretch of bitterly cold and wet weather.
He said they should be able to reduce the mound's height within a few weeks, and noted the business has shown its commitment to trying to be a good neighbor.
The I-Team saw Aztec employees hosing down material to reduce dust. Miller said the company pays a fee to use water from a fire hydrant in the mobile home park.
Still, complaints continue.
On Jan. 10, after receiving complaints about polluted stormwater runoff from the Aztec site, Hamilton County Public Health inspectors found that Aztec's industrial materials were exposed to stormwater and the activity there could discharge that stormwater off-site.
A day after that inspection, OEPA records show Miller applied for the stormwater permit. On Jan. 16, OEPA notified Miller that his application for the permit was approved.
Ten days after that, OEPA sent him a Notice of Violation for the inspector's findings on Jan. 10.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the I-Team emailed a series of questions to OEPA, but the agency didn't answer any of them by our deadline on Thursday.
"I'm keeping a file," Jones said. "We've been battling this since January 2023."
Jones and Gonzalez say their fight for a more livable community is far from over.
