By John Kiesewetter
Enquirer staff writer

LIBERTY TWP. - Developer Harry Thomas responded Friday to Ryland Homes' suit over the lead-contaminated Lexington Manor subdivision by pointing the finger at contractors - and back at Ryland.

In a U.S. District Court document, , attorneys for Thomas and Ricciardi made claims against excavators Ray Hensley and Shane Coffman, who tilled and buried lead pellets at a former shooting range being developed as home sites four years ago.

In June, Ryland sued Thomas and some of his companies; Ricciardi; and John Payne and Donald Fay from the Payne Firm Inc., a Blue Ash environmental engineering company hired to remediate the soil.

Ryland charged the developer and engineers with fraud and conspiracy for providing false information about the tainted land. Ryland did not sue Hensley or Coffman.

The California-based homebuilder has sought to recover costs for the multi-million-dollar hazardous-waste cleanup at the 26-acre subdivision declared a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site last year. About 20,000 tons of soil is being removed in Greater Cincinnati's largest cleanup of residential lead contamination.

Thomas and Ricciardi - officers of Lexington Manor Inc., which developed the property - alleged in court papers that Ryland knew the Payne Firm's remediation plan "did not call for the removal of lead-contaminated soil from the site. In spite of this knowledge... Ryland purchased 46 residential lots at the site, which it began marketing before the remediation of lead was completed."

A Ryland official declined comment Friday evening.

Ryland agreed to purchase the property from Lexington Manor Inc. in April 2000, five months before the Payne Firm reported the land "suitable for residential development."

The developers contend that the $7.88 million spent by Ryland repurchasing 27 new homes from customers was "the direct result of Ryland's fraud and/or misrepresentations in failing to disclose to its customers that lead-contaminated soils were present at the site."

Thomas and Ricciardi also denied they directed Coffman to excavate soil treated by Hensley, and bury it in pits, as claimed by Ryland. They also said they never "disposed of hazardous substances" at the site.

The developers also denied Ryland's contention that Thomas had been told in early 2000 by another engineering firm that contaminated soil should be hauled away to a landfill at an estimated cost of $1 million.

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E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com