The general manager of Yankee Lake Inc. said he plans to comply with Ohio Environmental Protection Agency requirements concerning the water treatment system at Yankee Lake Ballroom.
That should head off an enforcement action that already had begun, Shawn Morgan said.
The parties have talked since August 2019 about the water treatment system that serves the ballroom, which is owned by Yankee Lake Inc. EPA wants Yankee Lake Inc. to hire a certified operator to oversee the water treatment system, because the ballroom has the potential to serve more than 250 people.
Yankee Lake responded that it wanted to pursue an alternative method of determining whether an operator was needed that used actual flow data instead of the estimated potential flow. The EPA said that would be acceptable if flow meters were installed on both wells that serve the ballroom, and flows were logged daily and reported monthly. Yankee Lake Inc. never followed through, EPA said.
EPA filed a violation notice ordering Yankee Lake Inc. to hire an operator. Yankee Lake Inc. never responded, EPA said.
In a letter dated Jan. 20, EPA said Yankee Lake Inc. had 30 days upon receipt of the letter to hire an operator and pay a $1,000 civil penalty, or EPA “will pursue escalated enforcement, including additional penalties and possible referral to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office.”
But, ballroom General Manager Morgan said Feb. 1 that he installed flow meters on both wells over the holidays, has been logging flows, and will be sending flow reports and photos of the meters soon to the EPA.
“We’re not gonna pay any fines,” he said.
The ballroom’s water usage has been “way too low” to justify hiring an operator, he said, particularly in the time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down large gatherings.
He said he was late in installing the meters because of low cash flow due to the lack of revenue at the ballroom.
