Court asked to address Haskins wastewater plant's discharges

9/19/2006

BOWLING GREEN - A couple and representatives of a wildlife preserve just north of Haskins are asking a judge to order the village to stop discharging treated wastewater from its treatment plant into a ditch that flows through their properties.

Charlie Asmus Family Farm Inc. and Michael and Carole Repass filed a complaint Friday in Wood County Common Pleas Court. It states that the current sewage treatment plant is about half-mile south of their properties but a new plant, now under construction, would treat three times as much sewage less than 100 yards from their land.

The plaintiffs claim the effluent that flows from the Liberty Hi ditch north into the Asumus Farm ditch before reaching the Maumee River degrades the "nature preserve, its waters, and its lands. It adversely impacts the bio-community they seek to preserve and promote."

The complaint, which names the village, Haskins Mayor Kenneth Fallows, and Dold Development Inc. as defendants, has been assigned to Judge Reeve Kelsey. It seeks an injunction to stop the village from discharging into the ditch and from allowing more tap-ins to the village sewer system. It also seeks more than $50,000 in damages and attorney fees.