Ohio Code 3751.10 – Prosecutions
(A) The attorney general, the prosecuting attorney of the county, or the city director of law of the city where a violation has occurred or is occurring, upon the written request of the director of environmental protection, shall prosecute to termination or bring an action for injunction against any person who has violated or is violating any section of this chapter or any rule adopted or order issued under it. The court of common pleas in which an action for injunction is filed has the jurisdiction to and shall grant preliminary and permanent injunctive relief upon a showing that the person against whom the action is brought has violated or is violating any section of this chapter or a rule adopted or order issued under it. The court shall give precedence to such an action over all other cases.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3751.10
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes the state, any political subdivision or other state or local body, the United States and any agency or instrumentality thereof, and any entity defined as a person under section 1. See Ohio Code 3751.01
- Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
- Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or discharging into the environment of any toxic chemical including, without limitation, the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles that contained a toxic chemical. See Ohio Code 3751.01
- Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Toxic chemical: means a chemical listed in rules adopted by the administrator of the United States environmental protection agency under EPCRA. See Ohio Code 3751.01
- Whoever: includes all persons, natural and artificial; partners; principals, agents, and employees; and all officials, public or private. See Ohio Code 1.02
Upon the certified written request of any person, the director shall conduct such investigations and make such inquiries as are necessary to secure compliance with this chapter or rules adopted or orders issued under it. The director may, upon request or upon the director’s own initiative, investigate or make inquiries into any violation of this chapter or rules adopted or orders issued under it.
(B) Whoever violates division (C) of section 3751.03, division (B)(1) or (2) of section 3751.04 of the Revised Code, or an order issued under this chapter, shall pay a civil penalty of not more than twenty-five thousand dollars for each day of violation. The attorney general, the prosecuting attorney of the county, or the city director of law of the city where a violation of this chapter or a rule adopted or order issued under it has occurred or is occurring, upon the written request of the director, shall bring an action for imposition of a civil penalty under this division against any person who has committed or is committing any such violation. All civil penalties received under this division shall be credited to the toxic chemical release reporting fund created in section 3751.05 of the Revised Code.
(C) Any action for injunction or civil penalties under division (A) or (B) of this section is a civil action governed by the Rules of Civil Procedure.