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PA CEO SENTENCED FOR CONCEALING PCB SPILL

Release Date: 02/19/97
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PA CEO SENTENCED FOR CONCEALING PCB SPILL

FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1997

CEO SENTENCED FOR CONCEALING PCB SPILL

On Feb. 3, in U.S. District Court in Yakima,Wash., Quinn D. Million, President of Air Quality Services (AQS), was sentenced to a year and one day in federal prison and one year of supervised release as a result of his felony guilty plea to failing to report a spill of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) that occurred at the AQS facility in Pasco, Wash. The PCBs came from four transformers that were transported to AQS from the Harris Pine sawmill in Pendleton, Ore., which is owned by the Louisiana Pacific Corp. In addition to failing to report the spill, Million has not accounted for an estimated 300 gallons of pure PCB fluid that was drained from the transformers. In his guilty plea, Million chose to serve additional time in prison rather than assist EPA in locating the PCB fluid. The whereabouts of the fluid is still unknown. A failure to report the release of a toxic substance, such as PCBs, is a criminal violation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. Louisiana Pacific agreed to pay EPA $200,000 in Toxic Substances Control Act fines for their role in the mishandling of the PCB transformers. This successful prosecution was the result of an investigation by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division.

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