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10/5/2025
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
Oct 5, 2025 359 pm EDT
CrimeBox
Historic Conviction Fiscal Year 2013; Case ID# CR_2412(Massachusetts)
President of a MA trucking company pleads guilty to hosing off a parking lot after a diesel spill. The CWA violation cost $680 thousand to clean up
The defendant in this case is the President of a trucking company based in Charlton, MA. After a fuel tanker truck leaked its entire contents onto the company parking lot, the defendant failed to notify the emergency spill response network. Taking matter into his own hands, the defendant power washed an estimated 3200 gallons of diesel into a tributary of the Quinebaug River. The date of the incident, June 11, 2020.
Accidental spills under the control of the spiller must be reported immediately, if impacting water, to the National Spill Response Center 800-424-8802, or if on land to the State emergency spill line. Spill prevention and containment should be part of the standard operating procedures of any company handling hazardous materials. Whether accidental or intentional, the spiller is responsible to cover the cost of professional hazardous materials spill response, material containment and disposal. In this case, the defendant circumvented the spill protocols and acted to hide the incident. By washing the diesel off the pavement, it reached a wetland area where it released fumes impacting the residents of a housing complex. The cover-up resulted in a six month clean-up exercise for the State, the bill running up to $680,000 for the state.
More than two years following the spill, fall of 2012, the defendant plead guilty in Federal District Court to the Clean Water Act felony, negligent discharge of a harmful quantity of oil into navigable waters of the USA.
From the Department of Justice Press Release April 4, 2013:
United States Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, "The federal Clean Water Act is one of the most important tools we have in our ongoing effort to protect our natural resources. (The defendant's) negligence impacted important wetlands and tributary stream, and that could have been much worse, if not for the outstanding clean up efforts of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection."
"(The defendant's) efforts to conceal the spill resulted in its spread to a larger area,” said Mass DEP Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell. "Washing the spill into the nearby wetland created noxious fumes that endangered nearby residents and greatly complicated the immediate clean up actions performed by MassDEP. This case shows the legal consequences that follow from trying to evade responsibility for spills to the environment."
The defendant was sentenced to a federal fine with the restitution charge handled in a separate hearing, the clean up bill $680,000. In addition to the financial penalties, the defendant was placed on probation for 12 months, required to publish an ad in the paper to make a public apology. The Federal District Court providing the sentencing required the defendant to establish an environmental compliance plan with training for all employees.
Home Detention: 4 months; Federal Fine: $75,000; Community Service/Restitution: $680,000; Probation: 12 months; Public apology; Spill Prevention and Countermeasures Plan and Training
See last week's CrimeBox here, "Parent company ordered to guarantee payment for its subsidiaries' criminal fines, totaling more than $100 million for release of coal ash"
CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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