Historic Case Summary Fiscal Year 2000: CR_963
One of 30 Criminal Prosecutions in New York under the Clean Water Act (from 1989-2020)
A Lockport metal plating company and its manager were charged and pled guilty to negligent violation of the Clean Water Act.
The defendant individual in this case was employed to manage waste generated at the metal plating facility, including handling the company’s hazardous wastewater. In 1987, it is determined that the defendant allowed untreated process wastewater to enter the City of Lockport publicly owned treatment works, resulting in the criminal charges.
Metal plating generates wastewater with suspended metals and other harmful contaminants which must be removed before the liquid portion (effluent) is safe to discharge. With a state discharge permit, companies are bound to a pre-treatment process and required to sample, analyze, record and report all discharges. The terms of the discharge permit are worked out with NY Department of Environmental Conservation inspectors based on the characteristics of the wastewater for each permit holder, considering the receiving water body and all other industrial discharges made to that same water body. With all permit holders attending to the terms of their permits, waterways are managed for long term sustainability, under the CWA “swimmable, drinkable, fishable” principles.
The corporate defendant in this case was sentenced to a federal fine and ordered to make restitution to the City of Lockport Police Department and the City of Lockport Wastewater Treatment plant, followed up with three years of probation. The defendant individual was sentenced to a year behind bars and a federal fine of $4,000. The individual defendant was also sentenced to a twelve month probation following release from prison.
Incarceration: 12 months Federal Fines: $94,000; Restitution: 30,421 Probation: 48 months
“Under the Clean Water Act, it is a crime for anyone to knowingly dump pollutants into a waterway of the United States without a permit or in violation of a permit.” EPA Case Summary CR_2894 (2016)