WAUSEON — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a notice of violation to Fulton County for failure to keep a variety of required records for the animal-cremation incinerator at the county dog pound.

The county received the notification letter June 4 following a May 7 inspection at the facility, at 9200 County Road 14 north of Wauseon. The inspection was prompted by an anonymous complaint to the agency April 28.

“The complaint specifically was that they weren’t keeping proper records,” agency spokesman Dina Pierce said. 

“The notice of violation confirms that they weren’t doing all the monitoring, record-keeping, and reporting that they are required to do,” she said.

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Dog Warden Brian Banister declined to comment, referring The Blade to the county commissioners. Numerous attempts since June 5 to obtain comment from the commissioners’ office were unsuccessful.

The county must submit to the state a written response, including a plan to bring the incinerator back into compliance, by June 27. The commissioners clerk, Teri Suarez, confirmed that a response to the EPA is being drafted.

The county’s air permit with the Ohio EPA requires the pound to keep records when the incinerator is in operation of any visible smoke emitted from the stack, the time and weight of each batch of remains burned, and the temperature of the afterburner. A report is also to be submitted to the state annually.

The letter notes the pound has an automatic monitoring system to track temperature in the secondary combustion chamber as required, but the state said the pound has not operated, monitored, or maintained that system.

The Fulton County Dog Pound “has failed to complete daily visible emissions checks, maintain the monitoring and record-keeping requirements, submit annual [permit evaluation reports], and operate and maintain a continuous automatic temperature monitoring system in accordance with [the] permit,” the state’s letter reads.

In the EPA’s complaint investigation report, Mr. Banister is noted as having admitted to the state that “they have not been keeping records in accordance with their permit. They do not often incinerate, but when they do, they insert the remains into the primary chamber, close the door, and push the button.”

Ms. Pierce said the state was told the incinerator is used about once a month.

The report also notes the dog warden told the state he believes the complaint was called in by someone who is upset about the county’s policy regarding “pit bulls.”

“Mr. Banister believes the complainant is not happy with the [pound’s] policy regarding ‘pit bulls’ and therefore they are registering complaints about everything,” the report states. “Although the complaint is anonymous, Mr. Banister believes he knows who it is and that is why the statement was made.”

The county has been under fire recently from area dog advocates because of a 2012 commissioners resolution that prohibits “pit bulls” and “pit bull” mixes that enter the pound from being adopted out or transferred to a rescue. The resolution essentially mandates the dogs be killed if not reclaimed by an owner, despite the state’s removal of breed-specific laws that had deemed all “pit bulls” as inherently vicious.

Regardless of why a complaint may be made, the Ohio EPA will investigate, Ms. Pierce said, to determine if there are violations.

Carol Dopp, a co-organizer of the grass-roots advocacy group Fulton County No Kill, said the group’s initial efforts were centered on the county’s “pit bull” policy, but have since expanded to include what it believes is overall mismanagement of the public pound. She said extensive public records requests have raised a number of red flags for advocates.

“This is about transparency and accountability at the pound,” she said. “It’s all about documentation.”

Mrs. Dopp said what she sees as an overall lack of documentation has made it difficult to determine exactly how the pound is run.

Daily activity “logs are incomplete. Names, addresses, and other information that should be kept are not,” she alleged. “This is 2015 and there are no electronic records, no cameras.”

Though not part of the official complaint to the EPA, the complainant also indicated county records show the pound has been incinerating uniforms, drugs, and documents, which Ms. Pierce said would not be permissible.

“We did remind them that while the permit only specifically prohibits burning medical and infectious waste, the implication is they should only be incinerating animal remains,” Ms. Pierce said. “If they want to consider alternative materials, they need to contact us first and discuss it.”

The state’s letter notes a proper response from the county does not preclude the possibility of civil penalties, though Ms. Pierce said the EPA’s goal is compliance.

“Usually, the violation letters are sufficient to get a violation corrected,” she said. “Escalated enforcement — which may include fines among other requirements — is usually reserved for continuing violations, entities that won’t make good-faith efforts to correct issues, and/​or certain violations that have proscribed fines in state statue.”

Ms. Pierce said there are many animal-cremation incinerators around the state, most of them operated by private businesses. An online records search shows incinerators are managed by county dog wardens or humane societies in at least four counties: Fulton, Athens, Clark, and Stark.

“There have been very few issues with them,” Ms. Pierce said, noting there has been only one significant enforcement action taken by the Ohio EPA in recent years.

The Stark County Humane Society received a notice of violation in December, 2014, after an inspection of its incinerator revealed excessive emissions, improper temperatures in the secondary combustion chamber, and lack of a written log of afterburner temperatures. The humane society has since replaced its incinerator and is now keeping all required logs, according to a spokesman.

Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.

First Published June 15, 2015, 4:00 a.m.