Barge Cleaning Firm Pleads Guilty to Clean Water Act Violation
|
T.T. Barge Cleaning Inc., which operates in Westwego, Louisiana and on the Mississippi River near
Harahan, Louisiana, pleaded guilty on August 20 to one count of violating the Clean Water Act in
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District in New Orleans.
The corporation admitted that its employees illegally discharged untreated barge wash water containing traces of petroleum, vegetable products, and chemical compounds including benzene, toluene, xylene, methanol, chlorine, glycol, ethanol and cleaning acids and solvents into the Mississippi River between 1986 and 1997. In addition, employees pushed dozens of 55-gallon drums containing rust, sludge, mud and scale into the river from barges or dockside facilities. The plea agreement recommends that the company pay a $300,000 fine, be placed on probation for five years, conduct comprehensive environmental audits, institute employee training for handling and treating pollutants and hazardous wastes, and pay to retrieve drums pushed into the river. The case was investigated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Louisiana State Police, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the New Orleans Harbor Police. Edited by Beth Brindle |