LISBON — Two men accused of dumping 30 barrels of waste down a hill and polluting Yellow Creek were in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for sentencing or trial scheduling.

One barrel containing benzene from a Mahoning County business burst and got into the creek.

Christopher L. Joy, 35, Danbury Avenue, Wellsville, was sentenced to three years of community control last week after pleading guilty in October to complicity to illegal open dumping of solid wastes.

Attorney Kenneth Egbert Jr. of the Ohio Attorney General’s office said the community-control sanction for Joy, including a six-month term at the Eastern Ohio Correction Center, were part of a plea agreement. Additionally, Joy is expected to cooperate if his co-defendant goes to trial.

Timothy A. Patrick, 35, last known address Sixth Street, Wellsville, the co-defendant, appeared in custody after Joy had left. Patrick is charged with illegal open dumping of solid wastes and illegal transportation or disposal of hazardous wastes. A jury trial was set for April 27.

Egbert said that back on July 5, 2017, Patrick went to his employer in Mahoning County and picked up 30 55-gallon drums of waste from a sewer-related business. Egbert said Patrick hauled them back to Columbiana County and called Joy to help him.

The prosecutor said Patrick picked up Joy, who helped him move the barrels to the edge of the truck, so Patrick could push them off. The barrels rolled over a hill on property owned by Joy’s grandparents at 21584 Sprouse Road in Yellow Creek Township.

Egbert said one of the barrels burst, and the contents, an oily substance which tested as benzene, got into Yellow Creek. Egbert noted the EPA and local hazardous materials response crews were able to stop the substance before it got into the Ohio River.

Defense attorney Jennifer Gorby noted Joy was cooperative with investigators and will continue to be cooperative.

Judge Megan Bickerton agreed to the three-year community control proposed in the plea agreement and urged Joy to take advantage of programs at the EOCC, including working to get his GED.

“I think you knew what you were doing, but you didn’t know the severity of what could happen and what those drums contained,” Bickerton said to Joy.

She noted it is very easy for something to leave someone’s family property and end up in the rivers where it can cause pollution in this and other states.

Joy was ordered to pay at least part of the restitution owed for the cleanup and investigation — $1,000 to the Envoronmental Protection Agency and $1,000 to the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

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