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11/6/2024
WT Staff
 Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@watertoday.ca
November 6, 2024 130 pm PST
CWA CrimeBox
Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction: Fiscal Year 2009; Case ID# CR_1954 (California)
Dredge material dumped illegally off Winter Island in violation of Clean Water Act results in $1.5 million penalty
One of 72 Clean Water Act Criminal Prosecutions in the State of California (from 1989-2023)
A Washington-based marine services company is the defendant in this case, the defendant charged with a single count, knowing violation of the Clean Water Act for the discharge of dredged material to waters of the USA without a permit.
The defendant operated tug boats and barges in and around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in Contra Costa County. The charge stems from an investigation of the actions of employees and management for the defendant during the years 2003 to 2007. The company was contracted to tow barges full of dredge material to a privately owned property on Winter Island for disposal. The dumping of dredge material on the Winter Island site was permitted, intended for maintenance and repairing levees. Rather than unloading the barges to the permitted site, certain employees and a manager were found surreptitiously dumping the material in the water, often at night and out of sight of other marine traffic. In a single incident in April 2003, a manager ordered a company employee to release approximately 870,000 gallons of material from the open hull of the barge into the waters off Winter Island.
Discharge of dredge materials to surface waters or drainage courses surrounding Winter Island is prohibited.
According to the court brief, "At no time did Brusco have a permit issued pursuant to the Clean Water Act to discharge dredged material into waters surrounding Winter Island."
The defendant pled guilty as charged, the judge presiding at federal court for the Northern District of California on September 11, 2009 sentenced the defendant to $1,500,000 in fines, restitution and other charges. A quarter million of this was ordered payable to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, a further half million assessed for the development and implementation of an environmental compliance plan for the defendant company.
Federal Fines: $750,000; Restitution: $250,000; Environmental Compliance Plan: $500,000; Probation: 36 months
CWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
See last week's CrimeBox here, a metal finisher convicted and sentenced for direct discharge to the Oxnard, CA sanitary sewer system.
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