COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that his office will look into the drinking water and waste water industry to uncover a possible scheme involving rigging the sales of aluminum sulfate.
His office urged municipalities to send notice if they bought alum or ferric acid between 1997 and 2010 for wastewater and drinking water treatment.
“Many of Ohio’s local communities use alum to treat drinking water and waste water,” DeWine said. “We need information from local governments that have purchased alum to determine if they got a fair price or if the market was manipulated.”
Bid-rigging schemes inflict harm on taxpayers and government entities because they force them to pay unnaturally higher prices.
Ohio state law authorizes the attorney general to represent municipalities and public entities in these matters.