I stand tonight in opposition of the application approval by the Ohio EPA. Over 40 years ago on the north side of this county just as the US EPA and the Ohio EPA were in their infancy… somebody had the bright idea of digging big square pits and putting 50,000 toxic metal barrels in the ground. When they ran out of space, they opened the barrels and filled in the gaps with the liquids.

This happened because people were unwilling to think about the residents who’d come after them some 50 years later.

Decades later, as a State Representative, I have worked with citizens of Clark County. We are just now finally fixing this issue.

This was totally acceptable in the 1970s… Yet, I stand here today and can confidently say that burying toxic waste was an incredibly stupid idea.

50 years ago, in the 1960s, officials authorized permits for a quarry on what is now about 400 acres near this school and homes built around it. The people that approved those permits are no longer around.

Instead, you have before you… the families and individuals who have invested millions of dollars in homes around this area. Their life savings. Their retirement nest eggs.

Tonight I speak for the State Representative who will hold my office some 50 years from now. The one that will have to stand at a meeting like this, after you and I are no longer around, and have to answer for the problems that YOU are about to create.

On his or her behalf, let me just say what that State Representative will say 50 years from now. “Allowing the quarry was an incredibly stupid idea”

Since this is for the record… please let Director Butler know I have not had one constituent come and tell me they want this quarry. I have had hundreds and hundreds come and tell me they do not want this quarry.