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1. EPA ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR WATER UTILITIES ON GUARDING AGAINST TERRORIST AND SECURITY THREATS, 2. OHIO MAN AND HIS COMPANY SENTENCED FOR WATER VIOLATIONSPress Advisory
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2003 EPA ISSUES GUIDELINES FOR WATER UTILITIES ON GUARDING AGAINST TERRORIST AND SECURITY THREATS John Millett 202-564-7842/millett.john@epa.gov The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water recently announced that suggested measures for drinking water and wastewater systems to guard against terrorist and security threats have been issued. These measures are consistent with the Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded advisory system beginning with green, which denotes low risk of terrorist/security threats and increasing in seriousness through blue, yellow, orange (current level) and red. Water utilities are included in the 13 critical sectors identified by the Department of Homeland Security as potential targets of attack. The Agency took a two-pronged approach in disseminating these precautionary measures. First, through the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators each state’s drinking water program managers and staff will receive these guidelines and will determine how best to coordinate these measures with other instructions developed by the state. This EPA document is intended to be complementary and does not override or replace the states’ guidance. The states will distribute these water-related measures to the water utilities within their jurisdiction, either in the original form developed by EPA or revised to be consistent with states’ system. Second, these guidelines have been posted on the Internet at a secure, password-protected site, available to drinking water utilities only, that provides information to water utilities on a variety of critical water infrastructure protection activities. ENFORCEMENT WRAP-UP John Millett 202-564-7842/millett.john@epa.gov OHIO MAN AND HIS COMPANY SENTENCED FOR WATER VIOLATIONS Foster L. Mills, and his company, Mills Metal Finishing Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, were found guilty of Clean Water Act violations. Mills was sentenced to twelve months and one day of imprisonment and ordered to pay a $5,000 fine on Feb. 21. Mills Metal Finishing was sentenced to two years probation and a fine of $25,000; the company will make a contribution of $10,000 to the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commissions Greenways Program as part of the sentencing. The convictions of discharging inadequately treated metal finishing wastes into the City of Columbus municipal sewer system, in violation of pretreatment requirements of the City of Columbus, were investigated by the Central Ohio Environmental Task Force. The task force comprises EPA Criminal Investigation Division Cleveland Area Office, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Special Investigations, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, the Office of Defense Inspector General of U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, and the City of Columbus’s Department of Public Utilities. The sentencing came down in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Columbus and was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbus. R085 ### Release date:04/04/2003 Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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