This report outlines a pattern of repeated violations, delayed enforcement, and worsening contamination at Dennison Disposal’s injection well facility in Tuscarawas County. Over the course of a year, state inspectors documented ongoing releases of brine-impacted water, rising chloride levels, and a lack of meaningful corrective action. Despite this, the company was not fined, operations were not suspended, and required plans for remediation on their leaks were never submitted. This is the second report in a series examining incidents at Dennison Disposal.
On January 30th, 2025, Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ (ODNR) inspection reports revealed two Class II Injection Wells in Tuscarawas County had numerous violations of state law. (1) Dennison Disposal LLC’s injection wells were drilled on adjacent parcels which straddle Wolf Run—a tributary to Little Stillwater Creek.(2) Both the well and the filing pond are located within the 100-year floodplain of Little Stillwater Creek which is a tributary of the Tuscarawas River.
This facility has catch basins installed into the concrete liner that catch any onsite pollutants and also rainwater. The operator is supposed to test the contents of the catch basin to ensure there is no contamination present before they open the pipe and allow it to run off into the environment. Notably, ODNR has stated in communications to Dennison Disposal that it requires the company not to release waters found in the catch basins that exceed 250 ppm of chlorides. (3) Chlorides are an indicator of the salt found in toxic and radioactive oil and gas waste brine.
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* Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Public Records Request #11145 Anton Krieger, Catch Basins on Dennison Disposal Site
On January 30th, 2025, the ODNR inspector noticed all seven of the facilities catch basins’ drains were found to be in the “open position.”(4) Each basin and the “cut off trench” demonstrated elevated conductivity with a field test using an “EC meter.” These meters demonstrate a concentration of dissolved salts in a liquid which is why inspectors use it to see if liquids on site are contaminated with toxic and radioactive oil and gas waste or not. The basin that was tested in the southwest corner of the facility demonstrated an “over range reading”, which meant oil and gas waste was actively draining into Little Stillwater Creek. ODNR inspectors notified the operator, Cody Vickers, to close the drainage on the catch basins and pull the water out of all the basins and the trench. (5)Inspectors documented conditions consistent with contaminated water leaving the site, but no enforcement action followed at that time.
It wasn’t until two weeks later, on February 14th, 2025, when ODNR inspectors went back on site and found that there were still violations of State law. ODNR wrote Dennison Disposal a violation in accordance with R.C. 1509.22(A) for releasing brine impacted water into the environment.(6) No fine was issued. Dennison Disposal LLC was simply asked to develop and submit a plan to manage stormwater on site to prevent further releases of impacted water. The analytical report of the sample taken from the catch basin drain outlet on 1/30/2025 showed evidence that brine impacted water that was released into the environment.
Dennison Disposal submitted an official response to ODNR almost two months after the initial violation. They attributed this incident of contamination into the environment to a seal that had gone bad on their sump pump. In Dennison Disposal’s official response, they referenced how they had an on-site meeting between the company and ODNR inspectors on how the company will move forward with getting their environmental releases of toxic and radioactive oil and gas waste under control.(7)
They said that during this on-site meeting on March 7th, 2025, a five-foot-deep trench was dug right next to the secondary containment zone with a pump installed to pump any water back into containment for disposal. This trench would contain a 4” perforated plastic pipe and would be backfilled with gravel and fill dirt to create a French drain to “collect water from under the concrete slab between the fill dirt and virgin soil.” (8) ODNR did not close the case on the compliance notices issued to Dennison Disposal at this point. In fact, ODNR inspectors reference these informal measures taken to curb the company’s contamination right in their inspection reports.
A month later, ODNR is blown off by the company. An inspection report from April 24th, 2025 states,
“On the day of my inspection, I was accompanied by Kenny Brown (UIC Section Manager), Paul Carder (Radiological Section), Mark Atkinson (Waste Facility Section), and Justin Krantz (Waste Facility Section). Upon arrival on location both entry and exit gates were locked. Vehicles were
parked near the entrance gate, and we walked to [the] unloading pad to begin our inspection. Shortly after arriving at the unloading pad, Carri Mason arrived on site. After a brief conversation, Carri stated that we were on private property and asked us to leave. All parties then left the site.”(9)
Furthermore, Dennison Disposal’s official response to ODNR included reassurance that they would send monthly monitoring updates to the ODNR inspectors demonstrating that2 things would get better. They said they would sample the collection point of the French drain to demonstrate a reduction in chlorides over a six month period (September 19th, 2025). The company is testing for chlorides because it is an indicator of the salts found in toxic and radioactive oil and gas waste brine. In theory, this would show the leak from the failed sump pump seal had been fixed and no more oil and gas waste would be getting into the groundwater. (10)
Unfortunately, what the ODNR inspectors found by testing the French drain biweekly is that the chlorides were not reduced. In fact, one would argue the situation got worse from information seen in ODNR’s inspection reports. ODNR’s first chloride test performed on the French drain was on April 7th, 2025 which yielded a result of 2757 mg/L of chlorides. (11) On January 6th, 2026 (three months after Dennison Disposal’s own fabricated deadline to demonstrate improvement), the months of chloride testing peaked out with test results yielding 11,325 mg/L of chlorides.(12) In between these two dates, dozens of other chloride tests were performed showing no signs of improvement. This demonstrates that there is suspected migration of brine leaking through openings in their concrete slab ‘liner’ which is supposed to be secondary containment in case the tanks fail or there is a leak. Unfortunately, ODNR has perpetuated an informal tertiary containment of allowing a company to play around with a French drain while polluting the groundwater right outside Little Stillwater Creek. This approach addresses contaminated water after it escapes containment, rather than preventing the release itself.
ODNR did mandate a real stormwater plan with critiques of Dennison Disposal’s action plan back in May of 2025. They requested that the company provide a stormwater management plan that would address on-site issues within fourteen days. The company never followed through and it appears it had no intention to submit that formal plan, since that mandated plan as of the date of this report, there is no record. At the expense of taxpayer dollars, community health, and the cleanliness of our soil and water, Dennison Disposal simply would remain noncompliant, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources would let them. Documented violations persisted over the course of a year without escalation in enforcement.
Ohio Department of Natural Resources inspectors followed up in this compliance notice with Dennison Disposal every two weeks in this yearlong debacle for a collective 78 inspections between the two injection wells. ODNR’s inspectors stopped inspecting the facilities a year later in February 2026.(13) The compliance notices remain outstanding. A stormwater plan was never submitted. Fines have not been issued. A Chief’s Order to Suspend operations has not been issued. Chief Eric Vendel of ODNR Division of Oil and Gas has sat on the sidelines without using his statutory authority to hold actively polluting companies accountable for their violations of Ohio law.
These records point to a consistent pattern.Contamination was identified, it persisted, and in some cases worsened, yet meaningful enforcement never followed. Required corrective actions were not completed, no fines were issued, and operations were not suspended. Over the course of a year, a facility with documented releases of oil and gas waste remained active, raising serious concerns about the protection of groundwater and nearby waterways.
This Incident Report comes ahead as just one piece of a larger, comprehensive project releasing this summer detailing Injection Well failures and other ecological disasters.
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1 Ohio Department of Natural Resources RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Comments January 30th, 2025
2 Public Records Request, Dennison Disponsal #1 2014 Reissue, page 7, Floodplain Encroachment Study
3 Public Records Request, RE: Dennison Disposal, LLC Plan to address Compliance Notice 1740055379 and 984467352 for Dennison Disposal No. 1, API # 34-157-2-5507-00-00 (SWIW #11) well and Dennison Disposal No. 2, API # 34-157-2-5521-00-00 (SWIW # 15) Well, Union Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. May 9th, 2025.
4 Ohio Department of Natural Resources RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Comments January 30th, 2025
5 Ohio Department of Natural Resources RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Comments January 30th, 2025
6 Ohio Department of Natural Resources RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Comments February 14th, 2025
7 Public Records Request, RE: Dennison Disposal, LLC Plan to address Compliance Notice 1740055379 and 984467352 for Dennison Disposal No. 1, API # 34-157-2-5507-00-00 (SWIW #11) well and Dennison Disposal No. 2, API # 34-157-2-5521-00-00 (SWIW # 15) Well, Union Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. May 9th, 2025.
8 Ohio Department of Natural Resources RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Comments March 7th, 2025
9ODNR RBDMS, inspection Reports, April 24th, 2025
10 Public Records Request, RE: Dennison Disposal, LLC Plan to address Compliance Notice 1740055379 and 984467352 for Dennison Disposal No. 1, API # 34-157-2-5507-00-00 (SWIW #11) well and Dennison Disposal No. 2, API # 34-157-2-5521-00-00 (SWIW # 15) Well, Union Township, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. May 9th, 2025.
11 ODNR RBDMS, Inspection Reports, April 7th 2025
12 ODNR RBDMS, Inspection Reports, January 6th, 2026
13 ODNR RBDMS, Inspection Reports, Feb 18th, 2026