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5/27/2026
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@wtny.us
May 27, 2026 241 pm EDT
CrimeBox
Historic Conviction Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2653 (Montana)
Montanta sewage hauler brings his work home, sentenced as a CWA criminal
The Defendant in this case is the owner of a busy domestic sewage clean-out and hauling business in Montana. Clients included a federal government facility, the National Bison Range Complex, and others with septic tanks and stand-alone vault toilets to be cleaned out on a regular schedule. In January 2015, the Defendant faced a judge in federal court for the District of Montana, answering for a single felony charge, criminal violation of the Clean Water Act.
Montana's environmental authority oversees industrial sites and hazardous waste discharge permit holders, ensuring compliance with state and national environmental laws. The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) was well aware of the Defendant and his business, having issued a cease and desist order years earlier, in September 2009.
The Defendant had been ordered to stop hauling domestic sewage, on the grounds that no site had been identified and approved for land application of the waste. The Defendant's disposal records show no less than ten incidents of dumping in and around his personal residence, after the cease and desist order was issued.
EPA's Criminal Investigation Division got involved after the MDEQ informal enforcement action failed. EPA CID investigators proved the Defendant had gone on pumping and dumping domestic septic tanks after the cease order. When investigators searched the Defendant's property, the mandatory discharge records were not available. Septic waste was found and photographed at the property. The Defendant admitted in a written statement, waste had been dumped at his home place in 2011. The Defendant also admitted to deleting computer files, including the discharge records.
EPA-CID confirmed the Defendant had illegally dumped domestic septic material from Sept 2009 through June 2011. As the local public wastewater treatment works, City of Ronan, did not accept delivery from septage haulers, and no land site was approved for this purpose, the Defendant had no way out of this. Business records of the Defendant's federal client show septic waste was picked up and hauled away by the Defendant, dated after the cease and desist order.
Sentencing in this case took place in 2015, more than five years after the Montana cease and desist order was issued.
Federal Fine: $5,000; Probation: 24 months
See last week's CrimeBox here, "Aerial images showed an illegal diversion in East Gallatin River. The streambank erosion project contractor got a surprisingly light sentence for this CWA felony", here.
CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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