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March 28, 2024
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CrimeBox


CWA CrimeBox for the week of Mar 20 – 26, 2023

Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction:  Fiscal Year 2015; Case ID# CR_2651 

Chrome and zinc deliberately discharged to Cleveland sewer system


One of 56 Criminal Prosecutions in Ohio under the Clean Water Act (from 1989-2020)

Another metal plating company and an employee defendant were convicted of environmental crimes in Ohio for knowingly discharging metals toxic to the environment to the municipal sanitary sewer in Cleveland.

The employee defendant pled guilty to Clean Water Act violations in federal district court Ohio in 2015 for two criminal acts committed in 2012.  The defendant was responsible for the operation of the company’s wastewater pre-treatment system, which removed metals from process water, making the wastewater acceptable for discharge to the sanitary sewer system.  Court heard how the defendant took actions to by-pass the company’s pre-treatment process on two weekends in 2012, discharging untreated industrial process wastewater high in the metals zinc and chromium.  The Cleveland sanitary sewer treatment plant discharges to Lake Erie, trans-boundary water and drinking water source for communities downstream in Pennsylvania, New York and Canada.  Municipal wastewater treatment plants can be damaged by high concentrations of metals in industrial wastewater.  The permitting system for discharges depends on companies respecting the terms for pre-treatment, monitoring and reporting accurately their discharges.

It is not clear how by-passing the required pre-treatment could have been of benefit to the metal plating company or to the defendant employee, in light of the fine and restitution charges levied by the federal district judge.  The defendant company was fined $50,000 and ordered to make a charitable donation to the Cleveland Foundation, for work in support of the water quality of northeast Ohio.

 

Federal Fine: $50,000; Restitution: $25,000; Community Service: 104 hours; Probation: 24 months

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