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VIRGINIA WATER TREATMENT PLANT OWNER CONVICTED
Release Date: 05/13/99
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FOR RELEASE: THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1999
VIRGINIA WATER TREATMENT PLANT OWNER CONVICTED
James Ming Hong of Richmond, Va., was convicted on May 3 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond on 13 counts of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). Evidence presented at trial indicated that, in December 1995, Avion Company purchased a polymerized carbon water treatment filter system to treat wastewater contaminated with oil and other petroleum products. However by the spring of 1996, the filter system had become contaminated and required new filter material. Hong refused to pay to replace the filter media. As a result, Avion discharged untreated, contaminated wastewater into the Richmond sewer system in violation of its CWA discharge permit which pretreatment of discharged wastewater. When sentenced, Hong faces a maximum sentence of up to 13 years in prison and/or fines of up to $1.3 million. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the FBI, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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