Ohio official pleads guilty in fracking wastewater dumping

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The former owner of a
Youngstown-based wastewater company pleaded guilty Monday to federal
Clean Water Act violations in the dumping of thousands of gallons of
fracking wastewater into a northeast Ohio storm sewer.
Ben Lupo,
63, changed his earlier not guilty plea during a hearing before Judge
Donald Nugent in federal court in Cleveland. He faces up to three years
in prison, a year of supervised release and fines of up to $50,000 per
day, to a maximum of $250,000. Sentencing is scheduled for June 16.
Authorities
had charged that Lupo, of Poland, Ohio, ordered an employee at Hardrock
Excavating LLC to repeatedly dump drilling mud and brine intended for
deep injection into a sewer that empties into the Mahoning River
watershed, or he dumped the material himself, between November 2012 and
January 2013.
The employee, 34-year-old Michael Guesman of
Cortland, was sentenced last week to 300 hours of community service and
three years of probation.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said he
was pleased Lupo had admitted his actions and that Dettelbach’s office
would continue "to aggressively investigate and prosecute cases in which
people pollute Ohio’s waterways."
Randall Ashe, special agent in
charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement
program in Ohio, said the case sends a signal to the state’s growing
energy industry.
"As natural gas exploration continues, it must be
done in a way that ensures the drilling byproducts are treated and
disposed of safely and legally," he said. "This case demonstrates that
if companies and their owners skirt environmental laws, EPA will hold
them accountable."
According to court documents, Hardrock’s
facility in Youngstown had about 58 mobile storage tanks holding a
combined 20,000 gallons of waste, including oily mud and chemical-laced
brine. Lupo directed an employee to empty some of the liquid waste into a
nearby drain after everyone else had left the facility and after dark,
the papers said.
A sample of the discharge collected Jan. 31, 2013
— the last night the dumping occurred — was black in color and
contained several hazardous pollutants, including benzene and toluene.
Ohio
Attorney General Mike DeWine said Lupo "put his own business interests
ahead of the health and safety of our citizens, natural resources and
wildlife."
"He will now be held accountable for this terrible crime," he said.
A message left Monday with Lupo’s attorney, Joseph Gardner, seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned.

The case remains under investigation.
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