By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - Home builder Ryland Group and 18 families here have "resolved" a lawsuit over lead contamination in the yards of their homes, company officials said Friday.

Terms are confidential. The settlement brings to an end the litigation involving homeowners and the builder over lead contamination in Lexington Manor off Millikin Road.

The families' attorney, Chris Finney of Hyde Park, said Friday he and his clients could not comment.

Ryland settled two similar lawsuits from two families in the subdivision earlier this summer. Terms of those settlements also were confidential.

In all the suits, residents demanded Ryland buy back their homes, which cost from $190,000 to $330,000, and pay moving costs, other expenses and damages.

"We are very happy that this is resolved now for our home buyers," Ryland spokeswoman Melissa Bailey said Friday. "It's always very important to make our home buyers happy and do right by them."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared Lexington Manor a Superfund site three months ago.

Lexington Manor was built in 2001 on 26 acres that had been used as a skeet shooting range.

EPA officials have said they are holding Ryland Homes and the subdivision's builder, Lexington Manor Inc., responsible for the contamination. Since the lead was discovered, arsenic also has been found in yards.

The parties are signing a federal consent decree, which should be finalized by early August, and a cleanup will begin.

Ryland and Lexington Manor Inc., will pay for the cleanup, according to the EPA. State records show that Harry Thomas Jr. of HT Investments Inc., of Fairfield, is the agent of Lexington Manor Inc.

In addition to suing Ryland, the residents' suits included Lexington Manor Inc., Thomas and others regarding the lead. Those portions of the suits are pending.

Thomas' attorney did not return a call for comment Friday.

Before Lexington Manor was built, the developer, whose attorney has said he acted on the recommendations of an environmental consulting firm, had the lead-tainted soil rototilled with clean soil to reduce lead levels to a safe level for homes.

When that didn't work, the tainted soil was treated with lime to render it non-hazardous and then buried.

Ryland officials have said the company was not obligated to inform residents of the lead or that the land used to be a skeet shooting range because the environmental firm assured them the land was OK for homes.

"It was certified to us as being completely safe and suitable for building," Bailey said Friday.

But this year, after the residents learned of the lead and the Ohio EPA began investigating, Ryland paid for soil samples to be taken from yards. After potentially hazardous lead levels were found and many in the neighborhood sued, Ryland halted construction and offered buy-back deals to homeowners.

For most, the package included the original purchase price of their home, $15,000 in expenses and $10,000 off their next Ryland house, should they choose to purchase one.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.