6/6/2025
WT Staff
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June 6 305 pm EDT
SDWA Legal
Historic Conviction Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2646(Pennsylvania)
Locked up for a year and a half for false certification
The one and only criminal conviction under the Safe Drinking Water Act in Pennsylvania
An Erie, PA man was sentenced to six months in prison and another year of home detention, followed by three years of supervised release for issuing false documents. Federal District Court received a bill of information pertaining to the time period Sept 2009 to April 2011, the defendant had fraudulently issued certificates of closure for abandoned oil wells.
Official documents, such as those certified by the defendant, are routinely relied upon by the Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental authorities as an official verification that the Class II injection wells in question were compliant with regulations protecting the groundwater aquifer.
Class II injection wells are intended to receive brine fluid generated from the oil extraction process. In making ready and approving the disposal of oilfield waste, any abandoned wells within a defined proximity were to be certified capped and plugged to a required depth. EPA inspectors performing a pressure test on the injection well found leaking, leading to the discovery of abandoned wells within the proximity not being closed as reported and certified.
The court learned that abandoned wells decommissioned by the defendant did not reflect as indicated in the official documents provided to EPA. Inspection of the wells showed considerable misrepresentation of the depth of plugging, the certificates indicating secure to more than double the measured secure depth.
The defendant was convicted criminally, resulting in considerable incarceration time with a large restitution charge. This crime necessitated the re-inspection, re-drilling and re-plugging of up to 95 wells, at a cost near a quarter million dollars.
“EPA’s mission of protecting human health and the environment is dependent, in large part, on the veracity of the information it receives,” said David G. McLeod, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in the Middle Atlantic States. “Today’s sentencing should send a strong message that EPA and its partners will hold those accountable, who knowingly submit false reports and undermine our efforts to protect human health and the environment.”
Prison: 6 months; Home Detention: 12 months; Supervised Release: 36 months; Restitution: $236,524.73
See last CrimeBox, "Town of Cheshire assessed $1.3 million for filtration of public water supply", here.
SDWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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