All News Releases By Date

PA SOUTH DAKOTA SLAUGHTERHOUSE COMPANY FINED $2 MILLION

Release Date: 5/31/96
Contact Information:

PA SOUTH DAKOTA SLAUGHTERHOUSE COMPANY FINED $2 MILLION

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1996

SOUTH DAKOTA SLAUGHTERHOUSE COMPANY FINED $2 MILLION

A major meat processor, John Morrell and Co., was sentenced on May 28 in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, S.D., to pay a criminal fine of $2 million and to pay an additional $1 million to establish an environmental cleanup fund for the company's criminal violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Morrell was also ordered to comply with the terms of a civil consent decree requiring the company to implement certain corrective measures and comply with all environmental laws and regulations. The sentence followed Morrell's guilty pleas in February to six felony counts of conspiracy, illegal dumping of pollutants into the Big Sioux River and the filing of false reports with EPA to conceal the criminal offenses. The charges stem from the operation of Morrell's wastewater treatment plant, which treats waste from the company's slaughterhouse operation. In pleading guilty, Morrell admitted that it regularly violated its CWA permit over an eight-year period, including more than 130 times during a 17-month period between August 1991 and December 1992. Morrell also acknowledged that the company for several years refused to expend funds that could have stopped the pollution and, instead, falsified required government reports to make it appear that Morrell was in compliance with the law. Under the terms of Morrell's plea agreement, Morell will pay into an environmental trust fund administered by the City of Sioux Falls. The trust fund will be used to clean-up the Big Sioux River. The company's guilty pleas and sentencing followed guilty pleas in January 1995 by Ronald E. Greenwood and Barry M. Milbauer, the former manager and assistant manager, repectively, of Morrell's wastewater treatment plant, to charges of conspiring to violate the CWA. Charges against two other current and former Morrell officials are pending. The investigation was conducted by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division.

R-78 # # #