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PA CO. AGREES TO PAY $2 MILLION FOR CWA VIOLATIONS

Release Date: 2/9/96
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PA CO. AGREES TO PAY $2 MILLION FOR CWA VIOLATIONS

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1996

SLAUGHTERHOUSE COMPANY AGREES TO PAY $2 MILLION FOR CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS

On Feb. 7, John Morrell and Co., until recently a subsidiary of Chiquita Brands, International, pleaded guilty to dumping slaughterhouse waste into the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls, S.D., and deliberately submitting phony compliance data and discharge reports to conceal its crimes. According to a plea agreement and criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, the Morrell Co., one of the largest employees in the state, agreed to pay a $2 million criminal fine and to spend another $1 million to establish a local environmental cleanup fund. Charges against the company include conspiracy and violations of the Clean Water Act over an eight-year period, from 1985 to 1993. In one 17-month period, from August 1991 through December 1992, the company violated its EPA-issued permit more than 130 times. Sentencing is scheduled for May 13. This announcement follows the January 1995 guilty pleas of Ronald E. Greenwood and Barry M. Milbauer, two Morrell Co. managers who are currently awaiting sentencing for conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act. The employees admitted to falsifying discharge monitoring reports and rigging sampling tests. The United States has also filed a civil enforcement action against the company and, earlier this year, lodged with the court a partial consent decree under which Morrell would take actions necessary to obtain and maintain full compliance with the Clean Water Act. The government declined to prosecute Chiquita, Morrell's parent company, because Chiquita was responsible for voluntarily disclosing Morrell's violations to the government in 1993. In contrast, the government charged that the Morrell Co. had a corporate policy to exclude information about violations from company documents, directed managers and employees not to discuss the violations with government representatives and deliberately refused to spend funds necessary to rectify the environmental harm. This case was investigated by the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division. The case is being prosecuted jointly by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Dept. of Justice Environmental Crimes Section.

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