YOUNGSTOWN -  The last of three men have been sentenced for their part in abandoning toxic wastes at a business in Mahoning County.

According to court records, Samual Hopper Jr., 25, of Sebring was found guilty to a reduced charge on Friday and sentenced to probation. 

Hopper was among three men indicted by a grand jury last year after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported finding unsecured hazardous waste at Sebring Industrial Plating, which ceased operations at its Tennessee Avenue site in March 2021.

According to the EPA, they found 75 drums and totes, 50 small containers of hazardous waste, hundreds of aerosol spray cans, and approximately 30 open chemical vats.

Part of the building’s roof collapsed causing the potential for vats of plating liquids to overflow. 

The EPA began a cleanup of the site in August of last year.

The facility began operations in 1957 as a contract plater that performed zinc electroplating of steel parts.

 Samual Hopper co-owned the company along with 23-year-old Brian Hopper Jr. of Canton.

The Hoppers, along with former company owner, Richard Sickelsmith of New Waterford were indicted on felony charges by the Mahoning County Grand Jury in June of last year.

Brian Hopper Jr., who pleaded guilty to attempted operation of a hazardous waste facility without a permit, was placed on probation for three years and ordered to pay a share of restitution amounting to $1 million.

Sickelsmith, who was convicted of solid and hazardous waste violations, was placed on probation for five years when he was sentenced in May.

Cleanup included removal of 20,000 gallons of hazardous plating liquids and the inspection of surrounding soil. Some of the waste included cadmium which can cause cancer, hydrochloride acids which are highly corrosive, and chromium which, among other things, can cause a weakened immune system or death.