![[logo] US EPA](http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/logo_epaseal.gif){kind=logo}
FY 2004 Criminal Enforcement Highlights
FY2004 Annual Results Topics
The Fiscal Year 2004 Criminal Enforcement Highlights report contains the following categories:
Hazardous Waste
Clean Air
Clean Water
Ocean Dumping
Pesticides
Hazardous Waste
AAD Distribution and Dry Cleaning Services Inc., California
Hormoz Pourat, vice president of AAD Distribution and Dry Cleaning Services Inc. (AAD) and also the manager of Right Choice Inc., was sentenced to 37 months imprisonment and ordered to pay $1.29 million in restitution on Dec. 3, 2003, in U.S. District Court following conviction on conspiracy to violate hazardous waste laws. AAD, which was one of California’s largest handlers of cleaning waste until it shut down in January 2001, charged cleaning establishments to pick up and properly dispose of drums of a used cleaning compound called perchlorocthylene (PERC). The drums of PERC, a cancer-causing hazardous waste, were stored at the AAD facility even after the number of drums far exceeded the limit in AAD’s state permit. To conceal this situation from state inspectors, Pourat moved and stored the drums off site and falsified the required hazardous waste shipment manifests. Pourat also pleaded guilty to committing a similar scheme at Right Choice, where he stored flammable solvents from auto repair shops without a permit and transported the wastes off site to avoid detection. Cleaning up the AAD site and other facilities where PERC was illegally stored cost approximately $1 million. In a companion hazardous waste case in Colorado, Pourat was sentenced on July 3, 2003, to 204 months in prison and a $100,000 fine by the Jefferson County District Court.
Rhodia Inc., Montana
Rhodia Inc. agreed to pay a $16.2 million criminal fine and $1.8 million in restitution to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality and to clean up more than 7 million pounds of pollution at its now-closed elemental phosphorus manufacturing plant in Silver Bow. The company will serve probation for five years or for the duration of the cleanup, whichever is longer. The company pled guilty and was sentenced on April 29, 2004, to two felony counts of violating RCRA, admitting that from January 1999 until August 2000, it illegally stored approximately 500,000 gallons of elemental phosphorus-contaminated sludge, as well as other elemental phosphorus waste, in a 100-foot-diameter tank. The illegal storage posed a serious threat to the environment and human safety since elemental phosphorus waste can spontaneously ignite when exposed to air, creating a risk of explosion.
RT Automotive, Michigan
George C. Singleton of Clinton, Mich., owner of RT Automotive, was sentenced in February 2004 to serve 37 months in prison and pay $84,000 in restitution for illegal disposal of paint wastes containing flammable materials. He was previously convicted of conspiring to violate the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and on three counts of violating RCRA. In 1998, the defendant entered into an agreement with an auto salvage yard to dispose of approximately 70 drums of paint wastes containing ignitable materials. In August 1998, Singleton directed the illegal disposal of the wastes which were placed in an abandoned trailer in an open field in Van Buren Township, Mich. Two police officers and four firefighters required medical evaluation after approaching the trailer because of exposure to fumes.
Clean Air
Saybolt Inc., New Jersey, Massachusetts
Thomas M. Hayes, former vice-president of Saybolt Inc.’s Western Hemisphere Operations, was sentenced to 57 months in prison on Feb. 5, 2004, for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. The defendant was convicted in April 2003 of conspiring to falsify oxygen and other test results on reformulated gasoline, making false statements to the EPA, committing mail fraud and obstructing justice by falsifying reformulated gasoline test results from Saybolt’s testing facilities in New Jersey and Massachusetts. The falsifications inflated the amount of oxygen the gasoline contained, leading to the possible sale of sub-standard gasoline. The CAA requires that at certain times of the year, gasoline sold in specific markets must be reformulated to contain sufficient oxygen to reduce the levels of pollutants emitted by automobiles. High automobile emissions lead to high atmospheric ozone levels, which increase the incidence of breathing disorders such as emphysema and asthma. In July 2001, three former employees of Saybolt pled guilty to conspiracy to violate the CAA and testified at the trial of Hayes. In January 1999, Saybolt Inc. entered a corporate guilty plea in federal court in Boston to conspiracy and wire fraud. Saybolt's parent company, Saybolt North America Inc., pled guilty to related charges as well.
Clean Water
Crown E.G Inc., Indiana
Crown E.G. Inc., an environmental consulting firm that supervised the wastewater treatment facility at the Guide Corporation’s automotive signal manufacturing facility in Anderson, Ind., pled guilty and was sentenced on June 29, 2004, in Indianapolis for negligently violating the Clean Water Act. Crown will pay a $100,000 fine, serve five years probation and develop a comprehensive environmental compliance and education program. In September 1999, Guide Corporation closed an electro-plating facility at its Anderson plant and sent electroplating chemicals and wastes to its on-site facility for treatment, where large quantities of treatment chemicals were added under Crown’s supervision. In December 1999, approximately 1.6 million gallons of water contaminated with the by-products of the treatment chemicals was discharged into the Anderson sewer system, which ultimately discharges into the White River, killing approximately 100 tons of fish.
David Van Dyke, Indiana
David Van Dyke, who was the certified operator of the Warsaw, Ind., Wastewater Treatment Plant, was sentenced on Nov. 18, 2003, to serve 46 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release for his conviction on three counts of violating the Clean Water Act. The Warsaw Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges into Walnut Creek, a tributary of the Tippicanoe River. Van Dyke altered and falsified a lab report submitted to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. He also falsified records of the sewage plant’s weekly limit for Carbonaceous Biological Oxygen Demand, ammonia, total suspended solids and E-coli bacteria. Rather than pay for sludge disposal, the defendant ordered that sludge be recirculated within the plant. This killed the plant’s biological treatment system, leading to the release of untreated sewage into the creek, which killed thousands of fish in Walnut Creek between late July and early August 2002. Approximately 22,000 cubic yards of sewage sludge remains in Walnut Creek as a result of the improper operation of the facility.
Industrial Zeolite Limited, Louisiana
Industrial Zeolite Limited, and the company’s former acting plant manager, were each sentenced in federal court on Sept. 1, 2004, following guilty pleas for violating the Clean Water Act. Industrial Zeolite manufactures a product used in the production of detergents and other products. The company released 1.1 million gallons of wastewater exhibiting a high pH into a ditch that flows into the Callahan Bayou. Releasing water with a high pH into the bayou can harm fish and wildlife. The company will pay $1.457 million in fines and restitution, some of which will provide local government agencies with training and equipment to deal with hazardous material spills. The company also was required to remediate damage caused by the spill. The manager will serve five months in prison and five months in home confinement and pay a $10,000 fine. Both defendants were also sentenced for the same offenses by the State of Louisiana and received the same sentences that were imposed in federal court, which will be served concurrently.
Tyco Printed Circuit Group, Connecticut
Tyco Printed Circuit Group (TCPG), a subsidiary of Tyco International, was sentenced on Aug. 17, 2004, to pay a total of $10 million in fines and projects for 12 counts of violating the Clean Water Act. Of that amount, $6 million will be paid as a federal criminal fine, $2.7 million will go to the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s natural resources fund, the towns of Stafford and Manchester will receive $500,000 each to fund improvements to their sewer and water treatment systems, and $300,000 will pay for recycling de-ionized and other wastewater at TCPGs Stafford and Staffordville facilities. Between 1999 and June 2001, managers at the company’s Stafford, Staffordville and Manchester, Conn., facilities were responsible for discharging wastewater with higher-than-permitted levels of pollutants into municipal sewage treatment systems. The illegal practices included diluting potentially non-compliant wastewater samples, discarding of samples with excessive levels of toxic metals and omitting samples that were not in compliance.
Ocean Dumping
Hoegh Fleet Services, Washington
Hoegh Fleet Services, a Norwegian operator of ocean-going cargo ships, was sentenced on June 29, 2004, to pay a $3.5 million fine for seven felony violations of federal laws, including keeping a falsified Oil Record Book, obstructing justice and making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard. Hoegh was also ordered to develop a comprehensive environmental plan for its 38 ships that visit U.S. waters and must serve four years probation. In September 2003, a whistleblower from the crew of the vessel Hoegh Minerva informed authorities that members of the crew had allegedly used a bypass pipe to route waste oil around the oil-water separator in the ship’s pollution control system. Investigators later uncovered evidence indicating that the ship’s Oil Record Book contained false entries.
MMS Company, Ltd., Oregon
MMS Co., Ltd., a Japanese company that manages the vessel Spring Drake, pled guilty on April 5, 2004, to four felony charges in connection with the dumping of oily wastewater at sea. The case was simultaneously filed in Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles, with the plea entered in Portland, where the ship Spring Drake had been boarded. MMS will pay a $2 million fine and must establish an environmental compliance program. In a separate proceeding, the chief engineer on the Spring Drake pled guilty to falsifying the ship’s oil record book. In August 2003, the Spring Drake was docked in Portland to pick up a load of grain when it was inspected by the Coast Guard. The charges against the company stated that the ship dumped oil and oily sludge at sea through a pipe that bypassed the ship’s pollution control equipment.
OMI Corporation, Connecticut
OMI Corporation was sentenced on Aug. 6, 2004, to pay a $4.2 million fine after pleading guilty to preparing false documents to cover up the illegal dumping of thousands of gallons of waste oil and sludge at sea. In its plea, OMI admitted that a bypass hose was used on the OMI-operated ship Guadalupe to circumvent on-board pollution control equipment. The discharges were then concealed through false entries in the ship’s Oil Record Book. The Guadalupe routinely traveled between the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America, transporting crude oil and petroleum products. In September 2001, while the ship docked in Cartaret, N.J, the ship’s second engineer informed local police that he was being ordered to dump the oily wastes at sea. He was awarded $2.1 million of the fine, which is the largest amount ever paid to a whistleblower under the APPS. The ship’s captain and chief engineer pled guilty in this case.
Pesticides
Sierra Chemical, Alabama
William C. Murphy was sentenced on April 21, 2004, to serve 41 months in prison and pay a $45,305 fine for his conviction on 17 counts of violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and 11 counts of trafficking in counterfeit goods. The defendant, operating under the name of Sierra Chemical, sold counterfeit, misbranded, adulterated and/or mislabeled pesticides to municipalities in Alabama and Georgia. The municipalities were using them to control mosquitoes and the spread of the West Nile virus. The sale of counterfeit and adulterated pesticides to municipalities trying to protect their citizens threatens the public and undermines the federal and state regulatory system intended to ensure the safety and efficacy of pesticides sold in the Unites States.
Annual Results by Fiscal Year:
FY2008 | FY2007 | FY2006 | FY2005 | FY2004 | FY2003 | FY2002 | FY2001 | FY2000 | FY1999