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Florida Woman Sentenced in Michigan on Hazardous Waste Charges

Release Date: 03/26/2003
Contact Information:


Teresa Libera 202-564-7873/[email protected]

03/26/2003 - Johan March of Rotunda West, Fla., was sentenced for her conviction on charges of illegally transporting, storing and disposing of hazardous waste in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The sentence was imposed on March 10 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit and will include a penalty of 21 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. She also was ordered to pay $175,819.48 in cleanup costs to the EPA Superfund Program. The defendant inherited the assets of a then defunct Detroit parts cleaning and coating company, called the Utility Enameling Corp. The inherited assets included property where 55-gallon drums of waste solvents, acids and paints were stored. Between April 1995 and November 1995, March illegally stored approximately 100-125 of the drums and had the transported to New York, where they were abandoned. Abandoning drums of hazardous waste in public areas creates a potentially serious health hazard. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI with the assistance of the EPA National Enforcement Investigations Center. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit.