PORT CLINTON — An Ottawa County Common Pleas Court judge has temporarily ordered a company to stop work toward burying residue from Toledo’s water treatment plant in an abandoned Benton Township quarry after the township filed a civil lawsuit against the company and two affiliates.

Judge Bruce Winters approved a temporary injunction Thursday and set a preliminary injunction hearing for March 7 in the case involving Rocky Ridge Development LLC, which the township says is violating its zoning ordinance by digging a pit on the property. The township also contends burying what it considers industrial waste, mixed with soil, in the quarry would break state law.

The lawsuit involves Rocky Ridge, a company called Custom Ecology of Ohio, and Stansley Industries, with which both of the other two defendants are affiliated.

The city of Toledo approved an $8.5 million contract last year with Custom Ecology to remove spent lime from a lagoon near its Collins Park Water Treatment Plant. Stansley has an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency permit to reuse the spent lime, once mixed with soil, at the former StoneCo quarry on State Rt. 590 that Rocky Ridge now owns.

The township says Rocky Ridge has begun digging a ditch it intends to turn into a pond, but has not received a conditional use permit for the work. The company is excavating down to bedrock, and is storing waste improperly on the property, which threatens nearby residents’ drinking water, the suit alleges.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.

First Published February 24, 2017, 6:23 a.m.