10/9/2024
WT Staff
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October 9, 2024 1145 am EDT
CWA CrimeBox
Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction: Fiscal Year 2008; Case ID# CR_1823 (California)
Electroplator pleads guilty to discharging cyanide to Los Angeles public sanitary sewer, sent to prison
One of 72 Clean Water Act Criminal Prosecutions in the State of California (from 1989-2023)
The defendants in this case are a Los Angeles electroplating business and its owner-operator. The defendants were found releasing untreated process wastewater from the operation direct to the local sanitary sewer system.
Federal district court was presented with a bill of information showing the illegal discharge of a pH in violation of the Clean Water Act, the brief does not state whether too high or too low. Further, the discharge contained the toxin cyanide, according to healthline.com, "Cyanide is a poisonous chemical that can be found in some plants, metals, and gases."
The corporate defendant was charged with a single count violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), knowingly treats, stores or disposes of any hazardous waste without a permit. The owner of the company was charged with a single count violation of the Clean Water Act, knowing discharge of a pollutant. The defendants pled guilty as charged.
The individual defendant was sentenced to a term in prison and a term of home confinement. Both defendants were sentenced to federal fines, $30,000 to the individual and $150,000 to the corporation, and a term of probation for each. Restitution was ordered payable to Los Angeles County Bureau of Sanitation and the California Department of Toxic Substance Control.
Incarceration: 5 months; Home Confinement: 5 months; Federal Fines: $180,000; Special Assessment: $100; Restitution: $30,324.69; Probation: 48 months
CWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
See last week's CrimeBox here.
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