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1. FORMER LABEL COMPANY VICE PRESIDENT INDICTED ON CLEAN AIR ACT CHARGES, 2. NORWEGIAN CORPORATION PLEADS GUILTY TO SPILLING OIL AT SEA, 3. TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPANY EMPLOYEES INDICTED ON HAZARDOUS WASTE CHARGES, 4. EPA EXTENDS PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD FOR PILOT ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE DATABASEPress Advisory FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2003 FORMER LABEL COMPANY VICE PRESIDENT INDICTED ON CLEAN AIR ACT CHARGES Teresa Libera 202-564-7873 / libera.teresa@epa.gov John Littlehale of Terrance Park, Ohio, former Vice President for Manufacturing at Multi-Color Corp., was indicted on Jan. 15 for alleged conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA). He was also indicted for allegedly making a false statement in violation of the CAA. The indictments came out of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana in Indianapolis. The charges claim Littlehale arranged, from 1996 until January 1998, for the construction and operation of a new press at the Indiana-based Scottsburg Label Division (SLD) of Multi-Color. During that time, he conspired to make and made false statements to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The statements tried to conceal that the press was operating without proper permits and without installing the proper pollution control equipment. In December 2002, Roger Taylor, a former employee of the SLD was charged with misprision of a felony for allegedly concealing Littlehale’s false statements. Failing to operate machinery with proper pollution control devices can expose the public to an increased risk of respiratory diseases. If convicted on all charges, Littlehale faces a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison and/or a fine of up to $500,000. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division Chicago Area Office and the Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force for the Southern District of Indiana. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Indianapolis and the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in a court of law. NORWEGIAN CORPORATION PLEADS GUILTY TO SPILLING OIL AT SEA Billabong II ANS, a Norwegian corporation which owns the Motor Vessel Star Evviva, pled guilty on Jan. 10. Early morning of Jan. 14, 1999, the Star Evviva experienced a malfunction in its fuel oil transfer system. The malfunction caused approximately 23,096 gallons of bunker oil to be pumped on deck. The oil then flowed from the deck into the Atlantic Ocean. The spill was the direct result of the company’s failure to promptly repair an engine room malfunction alarm system and failure to station a crewman in the engine room to watch for malfunctions while the alarm was out-of-service. Release of this oil resulted in the death of at least 183 birds. The former ship’s captain and former chief engineer were indicted for conspiracy to obstruct justice. Both men are currently fugitives. The plea agreement calls for Billabong to pay a fine of $200,000, which will go to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and to also pay an additional $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation/Savannah-Santee-Pee Dee Conservation Fund. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston, S.C. An indictment is merely an accusation and all defendants are considered innocent unless or until proven guilty in a court of law. TEXAS ENVIRONMENTAL COMPANY EMPLOYEES INDICTED ON HAZARDOUS WASTE CHARGES Dwan Allen Trim and Lynn Kelly Fultz, former supervisors at Intracoastal Environmental Services (IES) in Port Arthur, Texas, were indicted on Jan. 8 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Beaumont on charges that they violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The indictment states IES contracted with a company, Coastal Marine, to remove, transport and dispose of hazardous wastes located inside a Coastal Marine barge. The defendants allegedly supervised the removal of the wastes between Dec. 26 and Jan. 31, 1998, and then transported it without a required manifest to a Coastal Marine property which was not licensed to store hazardous wastes. The property was located next to a public park in Port Neches, Texas. Trim was also charged with making a false statement on a hazardous waste label. The violations were discovered after a state inspector was overcome by noxious fumes while inspecting the hazardous waste at the Coastal Marine property. Illegally transporting and storing hazardous wastes can create a public health and safety issue. If convicted on all counts, Trim faces a maximum possible sentence of up to 14 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1 million. Fultz faces a maximum possible sentence of up to 12 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $750,000, if convicted on all charges. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division Houston Area Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center. It is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Beaumont. An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in a court of law. EPA EXTENDS PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD FOR PILOT ENFORCEMENT AND COMPLIANCE DATABASE Due to several requests from the public, EPA has extended the comment period for its pilot information database, Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) to March 31. The comment period was originally scheduled to end Jan. 31. The comment period provides users and other interested parties, particularly those responsible for facilities included within the database, an opportunity to review and comment on ECHO’s content, design and data accuracy. In addition, ECHO provides an online error reporting process to ensure continued public participation on data quality. When final, ECHO will provide users detailed facility reports, which include federal and state compliance inspections; environmental violations; recent formal enforcement actions taken; and demographic profiles of surrounding areas. ECHO can be found at www.epa.gov/echo. Comments regarding ECHO may be submitted to echo@epa.gov as a Word or WordPerfect file or mailed to Rebecca Kane, Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, MC 2222A, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. Specific data errors should be submitted using the error correction process on the ECHO site. Details regarding the public comment extension also will be published in an upcoming Federal Register notice. R-020 # # # Release date:01/22/2003 Receive our News Releases Automatically by Email
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