Toledo City Council decided to enforce its zoning laws in resounding fashion, 12 years after the issue should have been decided.
If zoning laws are enforced by the city of Toledo they should be followed by the city, so the decision makes sense, but it will cost big dollars.
The mining operation at Angola and Byrne roads, where drinking treatment material — DWTM — from the Collins Park Water Treatment Plant has been buried to replace sand and clay that has been extracted, has received a stop work order as a result of council action.
The result: Rocky Ridge Development LLC will have to send most of the DWTM to the landfill and the cost to the city will rise by $1.6 million, from $5.5 million annually to $7.15 million a year.
Council had delayed a final zoning decision on the mining operation citing the authorization of a permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The Blade Editorial Board advocated another delay to facilitate the solution that exists at Rocky Ridge’s Consaul Street facility. Council opted to move ahead on Tuesday, and the vote against rezoning was definitive.
The DWTM from Toledo is suitable for use as a nutrient for farm crops and, even more importantly, as a sealant to phosphorus on farm fields that would otherwise run off into the river, empty into the lake, and form harmful algal blooms.
The DWTM is wet sludge of harmless material that is hard to transport and to control the spread on fields. The East Toledo facility being developed will dry the DWTM sludge and turn it into pellets that can easily be shipped long distance by truck, train, or plane and applied easily.
It is still in Toledo and Rocky Ridge Development’s interests to divert as much DWTM as possible from burial in the landfill to the drying operation for use as a sealant of farm fertilizer or animal waste before it washes away into the water.
Toledo generates far more DWTM than comparable cities because of the need to clean our drinking water from the algal blooms and because the glass industry requires softened water for their operations.
Rather than pay an additional $15.69 per ton for landfill disposal, as much DWTM as possible should be diverted to the drying and pelletizing plant on Consaul.
While council has protected city credibility on zoning law enforcement, it has likely inflicted city residents with bigger water bills in the process. Moreover, they’ve done so when uncollected water bills already total more than $60 million and advocates for low-income residents are working to make sure service shutoffs are not coming soon.
The zoning issue at Angola and Byrne should have been considered in the context of citywide water bill hikes that are inevitable after City Council got steamrolled by neighbors and political candidates, and Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz didn’t step up and provide leadership to steer the process to the best outcome.
Bigger than necessary water bills will hit residents hard, and the extra money residents send the city will be dollars they don’t have to spend in local businesses.
Large industrial developments use lots of water. Toledo’s access to vast quantities from Lake Erie should be a development advantage, but it won’t be if the costs keep ballooning.
Toledo City Council solved a narrow zoning issue but missed the big picture in the process.
First Published July 19, 2025, 4:00 a.m.
