Ohio EPA Knowingly Overpaid for Land

What's a seven-figure overpay among friends?

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency paid out $3.9 million for a piece of property based on an appraisal it knew to be grossly inflated.

The EPA knew the $3.9 million appraisal of Aurora Golf Course was inflated because its own records include an appraisal valuing the property at $2.5 million.

The money was part of a $4.7 million project orchestrated by a secretive land trust to buy the golf course and shut it down ostensibly to improve water quality on the Chagrin River. But newly released public records make it clear that water quality was never the real reason for the purchase.