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8/6/2025
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
August 6 2025 1006 pm EDT
CrimeBox
Clean Water Act Conviction Fiscal Year 2011; Case ID# CR_2103 (New Hampshire)
Fridge technician's negligence creates a pollution cascade in Merrimack River
The defendant in this case is an industrial service firm based in Andover, Massachussetts. The company was charged with a single count, knowingly violates the Clean Water Act (CWA). This is a felony under the law, a CWA crime.
The defendant sent out their ammonia technician to service an industrial refrigeration system at a client's facility in Pembroke, New Hampshire. The work should have involved draining an ammonia holding tank, however this is where the job began to go wrong. The work was not performed in compliance with environmental laws. Rather than draining all of the ammonia to a secondary tank for safe storage until proper disposal, some of the hazardous material was moved to other parts of the refrigeration system, some was left in the primary tank and a significant amount was allowed to run down a drain in the floor.
Federal District Court in New Hampshire learned the technician was aware the floor drain connected to the local sanitary sewer system, and that the ammonia was released without permission. Authorities were not notified of the illegal discharge until a great deal of damage was done.
The damage started at the floor drain. Suncook Wastewater Treatment Facility (SWTF) was unaware of the non-conforming material, as no spill had been reported to the authorities at any level of jurisdiction. Ordinary sanitary sewer treatment facilities are not prepared to deal with untreated discharges of industrial wastewater, including the highly alkaline ammonia. The wastewater treatment facility itself holds a permit to discharge compliant effluent to the Merrimack River. Compliant discharge must be within a range of neutral pH, neither to acidic nor too alkaline, among other qualifications.
On January 25, 2008, the ammonia discharge caused the entire WWTP to blow the pH limit in its National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Toxic shock wiped out the organic biomass in the treatment tanks that normally breaks down and detoxifies the wastewater. Ammonia passed straight through the treatment facility along with under-treated wastewater. Not only was the discharge from the public treatment works excessively high in pH, there were solids dumped into the river. The whole mess spiked biological oxygen demand, detrimental to aquatic life in the river.
The defendant plead guilty to a criminal violation of the CWA for shutting down the local WWTP and causing SWTF to violate its discharge permit, for knocking out the treatment plant for three days.
Federal Fine: $40,000; Probation: 24 months
See last SDWA Legal, "Crew member convicted, fined for waste dumping in Connecticut harbour", here.
SDWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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