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7/19/2025
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
July 19 2025 1136 am EDT
CrimeBox
Clean Water Act Conviction Fiscal Year 2012; Case ID# CR_2366 (California)
Corrosives flushed down the toilet daily, a metal plating company owner and employee locked up for CWA crimes
Investigators at the US EPA Crimes Division were contacted by County Sanitation District of Los Angeles (CSDLA) regarding acidic discharges detected emanating from a Pomona metal plating shop through 2011 and 2012.
Publicly owned sewage treatment plants continually monitor the pH of the waste entering the facility, as high and low pH waste streams damage the lining of the sewer mains and treatment equipment. Non-conforming discharges can also be dangerous for workers at the treatment facility.
As such, businesses generating high or low pH wastewater streams are required to monitor wastewater characteristics, to record and report discharges as per the permit. In this way, discharge permits control the quality of material entering the publicly-owned treatment works. When waste generators fail to comply with discharge permit conditions, community wastewater treatment works can sustain costly damage.
Discharge permits specify the acceptable range of pH allowed for discharge. When the waste stream is too high or too low, the waste generator is required to perform pre-treatment to neutralize the stream prior to discharge. Alternatively, permit holders can opt to have their non-conforming wastewater material picked up by a service and hauled to specialized treatment facility designed to handle it.
The defendant in this case is the owner-operator of a metal plating and anodizing shop in Pomona. Sampling in the sewer line leaving the business revealed the presence of corrosives. EPA CID investigators found the business had no permit to discharge wastewater, and had never held a permit. The defendant claimed the business did not require a discharge permit as the industrial process water laced with heavy metals zinc, nickel, chromium, and copper was "evaporated" on site.
According to a press release from Federal District Court in California, "Following a search warrant on January 31, 2012, employees admitted that (defendant owner-operator) had discharged the pollutants himself, and trained and directed other employees to do so as well, by secretly using a hose to pump the toxic wastes down the facility’s toilet on a daily basis."
The defendants pled guilty to knowingly discharging contaminants in violation of the Clean Water Act. The owner-operator was sentenced to two years in prison, the employee received 30 days in prison, followed by seven months home confinement. The business was fined $30,000 for the CWA crimes.
Prison: 25 months; Home Confinement: 7 months; Federal Fine: $30,000; Probation: 24 months
This criminal investigation was conducted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, which received substantial assistance from the County Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County and Los Angeles Fire Department, Health and Hazardous Materials Division.
See last SDWA Legal, "Wastewater Facility supervisor convicted for inaccurate discharge reporting", here.
SDWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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