Air Pollution Compliance and Enforcement

The Air Pollution Control (APC) Division of Canton City Public Health is responsible to monitor air pollution source compliance with permit requirements and/or air regulations and to initiate appropriate enforcement action in the case of non-compliance for all of Stark County through our contract with Ohio EPA. Compliance is monitored by performing routine inspections, performing complaint investigations, observing source emission/stack tests, reviewing submitted documents, and performing emission estimation calculations. The priority and frequency of inspections are dependent on complaints received, the size and type of facility, and/or the type and severity of the pollution problems, all of which are dictated by Ohio EPA policy.

When Canton APC discovers non-compliance/violation issues, Canton APC is responsible to issue a notice of violation (NOV) letter to the entity. This letter informs the entity of what the non-compliance issues are and how they can resolve them. Canton APC then monitors progress of the entity resolving the issues and returning to compliance. For cases of significant non-compliance, additional enforcement action may be necessary. These actions involve referring the case details to Ohio EPA Enforcement group to discuss which actions are appropriate to take for each individual case. Ohio EPA enforcement actions can include: (a) taking no further action; (b) issuing a warning letter to the entity; (c) issuing Director's Final Findings and Orders to the entity (which usually include a monetary penalty); or (d) referring the case to the Ohio Attorney Generals Office for court action.

The compliance and enforcement actions that are taken by Canton APC and issued by Ohio EPA due to Canton APC discoveries are publicly accessible on our website and other websites, in the following ways:

• Monthly, the total complaints received and investigated, inspections conducted, and enforcement actions taken are summarized by source type and reported to the Board of Health (BOH). Significant non-compliance issues are further described in these reports. These monthly reports are available on our BOH Meeting Minutes page.
• Annually, the total complaints received and investigated, inspections conducted, and enforcement actions taken are summarized by source type and reported in the Annual Report to the stakeholders and public. Previous years' data is also included for comparability and visualizing trends in the data.  These annual reports are available on our Annual Report page.
• Canton APC discovered significant non-compliance issues that resulted in Ohio EPA Director's Final Findings and Orders are listed below. Note: This list is limited to one this type of final enforcement action, so it is not all inclusive of all Canton APC enforcement cases.
  
• Copies of NOV letters issued by Canton APC, Ohio EPA enforcement actions, and various other compliance/enforcement documents issued by Canton APC and Ohio EPA are available through Ohio EPA's eDoc website. Further details of how to use this website to locate Canton APC-issued documents are available on our Public Records and Notices page.
• Summary of violations and compliance history (taken by U.S. EPA, Ohio EPA, and/or Canton APC) available on the U.S. EPA ECHO website.

Below are links to issued Ohio EPA Director's Final Findings and Orders from January 1, 2016 until present date for significant non-compliance issues in Stark County discovered by Canton APC. Note: The list below is not all inclusive and does not include all Canton APC's enforcement cases.