Bath Township, Greene County, Ohio: Difference between revisions

Township in Ohio, United States

Bath Township is one of the twelve townships of Greene County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 39,365.

Geography[edit]

Located in the northwestern corner of the county, it borders the following townships and cities:

Several populated places are located in Bath Township:

Name and history[edit]

Bath Township was organized in 1807.^[5] The township was named after Bath, Maine (which was named after the English city of Bath). One of the early settlers came from the city in Maine.^[6] Statewide, other Bath Townships are located in Allen and Summit counties.^[7]

The first settlers in Bath Township were members of the Mercer family, who immigrated from Virginia. The precise date of their arrival is unknown, but it seems certain that crops were being raised in the township before George Washington died in 1799.^[8] The Mercer Log House still stands and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.^[9]

Government[edit]

The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1. Two are elected in the year after the presidential election and one is elected in the year before it. There is also an elected township fiscal officer,^[10] who serves a four-year term beginning on April 1 of the year after the election, which is held in November of the year before the presidential election. Vacancies in the fiscal officership or on the board of trustees are filled by the remaining trustees.

Biodigester Controversy[edit]

In 2014, a 5.5 million gallon Dovetail Energy Biodigester, owned and operated by Renergy Incorporated, was built in Bath Township. It was built on a pig farm owned by then-Bath Township Trustee Thomas V. Pitstick. ^[11]Residents of Bath Township and the City of Fairborn began to complain of odor in the areas around the digester, which continued to be the source of controversy.

The biodigester is still in operation as of August 2023.

Zoning Appeals[edit]

Following years of complaints from Bath Township and Fairborn residents, the Bath Township Board of Zoning Appeals brought in an outside prosecutor to advise the township in 2019. On 6 September 2019, Renergy Inc., Dovetail Energy LLC, and Thomas Pitstick were sent a Notice of Violation from this prosecutor citing the operation was in violation of the Ohio Revised Code and Bath Township’s zoning codes. The letter alleged that since more than half of the material feeding the biodigester came from outside of Pitstick’s farm, that the operation was industrial in nature, as opposed to the agricultural zone it was operating on. They were given 30 days to correct the violation cited in the letter. ^[12]

Dovetail Energy appealed the decision with the Bath Township Board of Zoning Appeals, which the board denied on 3 March 2020.

Following this, Dovetail Energy appealed the Board’s decision to the Greene County Common Pleas Count. Dovetail Energy argued that since the energy production qualified as a public utility, that it was exempt from township zoning requirements. They further supported this argument by citing that the biodigester in operation was an Ohio Renewable Energy Resource Generating Facility and that they had paid Public Utility Personal Property Taxes to the State of Ohio and Greene County since 2015. ^[13]
The Court ruled in favor of Dovetail Energy on 29 April 2021 and the operation was allowed to continue.^[14] This mirrored a decision made in Morrow County, Ohio where another biodigester was in operation.

The Bath Township Board of Zoning Appeals then appealed Greene County’s decision to the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals, which also ruled in favor of Dovetail Energy on 14 Jan 2022.^[15]

Lawsuits & Environmental Violations[edit]

The first lawsuit was brought against Dovetail Energy LLC & Renergy Inc. on 10 December 2020. It was a class action lawsuit filed by Luke Borntrager, a Bath Township resident who resided in the immediate vicinity of the biodigester. It alleged that Dovetail Energy had failed to “collect, capture, and destroy gas from the facility in a manner that does not allow noxious odors”. It also alleged negligence on behalf of Dovetail Energy, Thomas Pitstick (who was still a sitting Bath Township Trustee), and Renergy Inc., despite repeated government and resident complaints.^[16]

Renergy Inc. motioned to dismiss the class-action in Feburary 2021.^[17]

In April 2022, the City of Fairborn and Bath Township filed a federal lawsuit against Renergy Inc., Dovetail Energy LLC, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.^[18] It alleged that Renergy and Dovetail Energy were knowingly in violation of the Clean Air Act by allowing the biodigeste storage tank to emit significant quantities of ammonia without applying…