MILFORD, Ohio — Before sunset on Monday, crews cleared 12 truckloads of trash from a residential property. But it's expected to take at least another week before every inch of the illegal dump site is free from waste.
The large-scale cleanup effort now underway off Parker Road will remove a "community eyesore and potential health hazard" that's long plagued a Goshen Township neighborhood.
“Getting to a place where we are able to restore this property has taken over a decade of hard work and commitment from our partners in Clermont County,” Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel said. “With the help of the county commissioners and prosecutor, Goshen Township trustees and local law enforcement, it is time to clean this site up and return it to the community.”
The property’s owner, Donald Combs, was the subject of multiple enforcement actions during the past 15 years to remove the debris which he failed to do, the Ohio EPA said.
The unlicensed landfill covers approximately three acres of land adjacent to Combs’ home.
"It got old after a while," Combs' next-door neighbor Shelby Arbaugh said. "It was kind of like, Donny, seriously can we just not anymore? Like you have plenty of piles over there that you need to sort through already, we don't need to add to it."
Arbaugh said she's eager to see the landfill cleared away. But while the piles of trash are a problem, she said Combs wasn't.
"He would give you the shirt off of his back in a heartbeat and he loves everybody he's around (when he likes ya)," she said. "It sucks because he is such a good, kindhearted person deep down and I wish that everybody would see more of that from him versus just the piles of crap back there."
In 2021, Combs was sentenced to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to eight felonies related to environmental crimes. Those charges included three counts of illegal open dumping of solid waste, two counts of illegal operation of a solid waste facility without a license, two counts of violating Ohio EPA director of environmental protection orders and one count of illegal open burning of solid wastes.
"It is quite a nuisance to look at and watch go down (into the lake). It got old after a while," Arbaugh said.
Combs illegally dumped thousands of pounds of waste he hauled away for four years. He solicited waste hauling business mostly by answering ads on Craigslist and undercut competitors who factored in the appropriate costs of properly dumping solid waste in a licensed landfill, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a 2021 press release.
Some of the piles of solid waste were more than 20 feet high, Yost said.
The Environmental Enforcement Unit at the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) led the investigation, aided by Ohio EPA’s Special Investigations Unit and state prosecutors from the Ohio Attorney General’s Environmental Enforcement Section.
"There's a reason the Ohio EPA is protective of human health and the environment when we permit landfills, which is where you take this solid waste. And landfills have protection for land water. They have lining. They have coverage," Ohio EPA Director Anne Vogel said. "There's a way to store waste and we know how to do it and the companies know how to do it well in Ohio. This is not how you store solid waste."
Vogel joined Clermont County Commissioners, officials from the Clermont County Prosecutors' Office, Goshen Township leadership and others to celebrate the start of cleanup Monday.
Ohio EPA’s contractor, Rumpke, is handling the effort, removing an estimated 1,700 tons at a cost of more than $218,000. But that's just at Combs' residential site. Officials say he also has an unlicensed commercial dump off State Route 28 that is even larger and costlier to clear.
The Clermont County Health Department first issued orders in 2008 related to the commercial site, then in 2016 Ohio EPA issued Director’s Final Findings and Orders to Combs to remove and dispose of an estimated 570,000 cubic yards of solid waste (including 150 scrap tires) on the State Route 28 property. That ultimately led to the matter being referred to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office in September of 2017 due to Mr. Combs's failure to comply with the orders, Ohio EPA said.
In February 2021, Combs was fined nearly $1.5 million after the Clermont County Court of Common Pleas issued a judgment finding Combs liable for violations of Ohio’s environmental laws on both properties and ordering cleanup.
Incarcerated and unable to make payments for the past three years, Combs filed bankruptcy. In May 2024, the bankruptcy court allowed the bankruptcy trustee to abandon the Combs properties from the bankruptcy, clearing the path for the township, county and state to move forward with cleanup of both properties, Ohio EPA said.
"We are seeing the first tangible results of the efforts to abate the nuisances at the Combs properties," said Stephanie Ross, an administrator with the Clermont County Prosecutor’s Office. "Complex problems require complex solutions and this proves the rule."
In 2021, Yost estimated total cleanup would cost around $1.3 million. On Monday, Clermont County Assistant Prosecutor Brian Shrive said the new price tag will likely be bigger.
"I don't have a ballpark on that, but excess," he said.
Clermont County and Goshen Township plan to remove more than 5,000 tons of solid waste from Combs’ commercial site within the coming months.
"My hope for (Combs) is that he gets back on track and moves forward from all of this because he doesn't deserve to dwell on this for the rest of his life," said Arbaugh. "People make mistakes and this is just a giant one for him and it's alright."
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