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2/19/2025
WT Staff
Knowledge of an environmental crime? Give us a call at 877-52-WATER (877-529-2837), or email info@watertoday.ca
February 19, 2025 1209 pm PST
CWA CrimeBox
Environmental Crimes Historic Conviction: Fiscal Year 2016; Case ID# CR_2840(California)
Porta-potties emptied in Camp Pendleton ravine, vac truck driver sentenced
One of 72 Clean Water Act Criminal Prosecutions in the State of California (from 1989-2023)
The defendant in this case was employed by a contractor of Marine Corps Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. The defendant operated a vacuum truck dispatched to clean out porta-potties around the base during 2013 and 2014.
The work assignment was straightforward: empty the contents of the portable toilets to the honey wagon, deliver the truck tank contents to designated sewage holding tanks located on the base. From there, the waste was removed to the wastewater treatment facility on the base.
The defendant admitted to clearing the portables as required. Rather than making the trip to empty the vac truck into the holding tanks for later processing, the putrid contents were unloaded into a ravine within the Camp Pendleton perimeter. The defendant further admitted these criminal acts in violation of the CWA, by the dumping hazardous waste of unknown characteristics (no testing) directly to the environment, and in failing to notify the authorities.
The Federal District Court in California received the defendant's guilty plea and issued the sentencing in the summer of 2015. The defendant was sentenced to a federal fine, restitution payment to cover the cost of environmental clean-up and five years of probation.
Federal Fines: $2,500; Restitution: $3,335; Probation: 60 months
See last week's CrimeBox here, "Central Valley gold mine manager imprisoned for Clean Water Act violations, depredation of US property"
CWA CrimeBox briefs are compiled from EPA Criminal Enforcement records.
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