SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO - The owner of the Copamarina Beach Resort in Guánica, Puerto Rico, and one of the corporations that operated the hotel, have pled guilty to felony violations of the federal Clean Water Act, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), Lois Schiffer announced today. The hotel discharged domestic sewage into the Caribbean Sea at Caña Gorda Beach through a pipe that stretched from the hotel's wastewater treatment plant directly into the sea without the required federal permit, from October 1, 1996 and continuing through September 16, 1997. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department on behalf of the EPA today filed a lawsuit against Duke Energy, charging that eight of the electric utility's power plants illegally released massive amounts of air pollutants for years. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department and the EPA today announced an environmental settlement with Koch Petroleum Group that is expected to reduce air emissions from three petroleum refineries in Minnesota and Texas by at least 5,200 tons. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In an ongoing initiative to stop air pollution released illegally from coal-fired power plants, the Justice Department and the EPA today announced a settlement of a lawsuit with Cinergy Corporation, an electric utility based in Cincinnati. The enforcement action, valued at $1.4 billion, is the largest ever taken by the U.S. EPA under the Clean Air Act. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Four companies will pay $73 million to clean up contamination from the pesticide DDT and restore the ocean environment off the coast of Los Angeles under a settlement with the United States and State of California filed today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - Construction Personnel Inc., a contract labor firm, pleaded guilty today to a scheme of hiring unauthorized aliens from Mexico, Central and South America to remove asbestos, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A construction company and three of its supervisors have been sentenced in Florida for environmental crimes related to the construction of the Garcon Point Bridge that spans Pensacola Bay. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced that environmental consultant John Zentner, 46, of Orinda, Calif., and the business he operates, Zentner & Zentner, of Emeryville, Calif., pled guilty today to criminal charges under the Endangered Species Act for illegally taking threatened California red-legged frogs at a new housing project in Concord, Calif. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of New York today announced an agreement in principle with Virginia Power that requires the company to significantly reduce harmful air pollution from the company's eight coal-fired power plants, perform $13.9 million in environmental projects, and pay a $5.3 million civil fine. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal jury in Mobile, Alabama, has found four individuals guilty of multiple felony counts related to the illegal harvest and importation of Caribbean spiny lobster tails, the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A Mississippi poultry rendering company today pleaded guilty to 26 felony charges and admitted that it conspired to dump thousands of gallons of slaughterhouse waste into a local stream. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Morton International Inc. will resolve charges the chemical company violated several environmental laws at its Moss Point, Miss., facility under a civil settlement and criminal plea agreement announced today by the United States and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ). (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States and the state of California today announced a settlement with Aventis CropSciences USA, Inc. that will fund cleanup costs that could approach $1 billion at the Iron Mountain Mine Superfund Site near Redding, Calif. (Read more)

Washington, D.C. - Anacostia Marina, Inc., and its owner, Thomas Long, of Forestville, Md., pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Washington to violating federal and local environmental laws while operating the Marina earlier this year. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- The Clinton Administration today announced that it has reached agreements with two landlords in the District of Columbia to settle claims that they violated federal law by failing to warn their tenants that their homes may contain lead-based paint hazards. The settlements are part of a coordinated effort by federal agencies to eliminate childhood lead poisoning. Also today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Environmental Protection Agency announced administrative actions the agencies have taken under the initiative. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal grand jury in Corpus Christi, Tex., today returned a 97-count indictment against Koch Industries Inc., Koch Petroleum Group, L.P., and four corporate employees charging them with environmental crimes at a Texas oil refinery. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - A Linden, N.J.,testing laboratory and two of its supervisors pleaded guilty today to conspiring to mislead investigators about a scheme designed to falsify chemical analyses involving hundreds of millions of gallons of reformulated gasoline, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The federal government sued W.R. Grace & Co. and Kootenai Development Company today, seeking immediate access to property near Libby, Montana, in order to clean up asbestos contamination. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States has reached an agreement with Meyer's Bakery to settle claims that it illegally released ozone-depleting gasses from its factories in five states, the Justice Department and the EPA announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A jet fuel distribution company today pleaded guilty to dumping spent fuel into a waterway at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- A two-year effort to extradite a reputed international wildlife smuggling kingpin ended last night when the Mexican government turned over to the United States Keng Liang "Anson" Wong, 42, of Penang, Malaysia. Wong faces trial in San Francisco on federal charges that he spearheaded an international wildlife smuggling ring, which successfully smuggled about 300 protected animals to the United States by concealing them in Federal Express packages, airline baggage and other shipments. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A construction company and three of its supervisors today pleaded guilty in Florida to environmental crimes related to the construction of the Garcon Point Bridge that spans Pensacola Bay. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Glenn Kelly Johnson, the general manager and president of Johnson Properties, Inc., today pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges in connection with a $1.2 million loan used to buy more than 60 private sewage treatment facilities in western Louisiana. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Chevron U.S.A. Inc. has agreed to pay a record $7 million to settle claims that it violated the Clean Air Act at its offshore loading terminal near El Segundo, Calif., the EPA and the Justice Department announced today. The settlement includes a $6 million penalty, the highest ever paid under the Clean Air Act for a single facility, and environmental improvement projects valued at $1 million. (Read more)

Washington, D.C. -- The Justice Department announced today that F. Alioto Co., a seafood company at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, has pleaded guilty to a scheme to sell and export protected fish that were caught in violation of California law. (Read more)

Washington, D.C. - HS Resources, an oil and gas exploration company, will pay a $700,000 penalty and spend another $500,000 to buy and preserve wetlands in southern Louisiana to settle claims that it illegally destroyed 20 acres of wetlands. The penalty is the largest of its kind ever imposed in Louisiana. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department and the EPA have reached a $1.5 million settlement with E.I. du Pont de Nemours related to a 1995 chemical release in eastern Kentucky that led to the evacuation of several communities surrounding the plant. (Read more)

As part of an ongoing enforcement effort to ensure cleaner, healthier air for all Americans, the Environmental Protection Agency and Justice Department today announced record agreements in principle with two of the nation's largest petroleum refiners -- BP Amoco and the Koch Petroleum Group. The agreements, valued at nearly $600 million, are the largest for clean air ever reached with companies from the petroleum refining industry. When fully implemented, these agreements will eliminate almost 60,000 tons of air pollution every year. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - A Warren, R.I., manufacturer has agreed to pay $240,000 in fines and spend at least $148,000 to help reduce air pollution in Rhode Island to settle claims by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice that the company violated the Clean Air Act. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - Willamette Industries will spend more than $90 million to settle a major environmental suit alleging that it failed to control the amount of air pollution released from its wood product factories in four states, under an agreement reached today with the Justice Department and the EPA. (Read more)

The agreement requires the defendants to implement a project to restock Block Island Sound with 1.25 million female lobsters over the next three to five years. Under the project, adult female lobsters will be purchased from wholesalers, have their tails marked with a v-shaped notch, and be released into Block Island Sound. Because it is illegal to harvest such a notched lobster, this project will increase the number of adult females in Block Island Sound, boosting the production of offspring and the overall lobster population. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - The United States and the State of Ohio today announced legal action against AK Steel Corporation, charging the steel giant with violating several environmental laws at its facility in Middletown, Ohio. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- David M. Uhlmann has accepted the position of Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the Justice Department, Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, announced today. Uhlmann replaces Steven P. Solow, who is a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- The Union Pacific Railroad will pay an $800,000 fine to resolve environmental claims associated with seven train derailments that spilled oil and other hazardous pollutants into Colorado and Utah waterways. A settlement filed today in federal court in Denver also requires the Omaha, Neb.-based railroad to undertake specific measures to avert environmental damage in the future. (Read more)

New York, N.Y. - U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue in Syracuse has ruled that Oliver Hill, the former owner and operator of a gas station in Onondaga Nation territory, is liable for a penalty of $4,746,500 for violating a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cleanup order. The case against Hill was brought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York and EPA after Hill ignored a 1995 EPA order to clean up an estimated 10,000 gallons of gasoline that had leaked from underground tanks at his gas station and seriously contaminated an underground aquifer used for drinking water by nearby residents, including children. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- A federal grand jury in Mobile, Ala., has returned an indictment charging four individuals with smuggling into the United States numerous shipments of lobster that were harvested in violation of Honduran laws. The defendants, David Henson McNab of Honduras, Robert D. Blandford and Abner J. Schoenwetter of Florida, and Dianne H. Huang of New Jersey, also are charged with conspiracy.
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WASHINGTON - The United States today entered into an agreement with IBP, inc., the world's largest meatpacker, requiring the company to take immediate steps to eliminate a public health threat posed by nearly a ton each day of hydrogen sulfide emissions at its Dakota City/South Sioux City, Neb., facility. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice today announced that a former manager of waste hauler Browning-Ferris Inc. was sentenced for his role in illegally dumping contaminated wastewater into the District of Columbia's sewer system. Gregory R. Smith will serve one year probation following the sentencing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno today expressed appreciation for Senator Pete Domenici's support for continuing talks toward a negotiated settlement of the Sandia Mountain land claim. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the longest sentence ever imposed for an environmental crime, a federal judge has ordered an Idaho man to serve 17 years in prison for his crimes that left a 20-year-old employee with permanent brain damage from cyanide poisoning, the Department of Justice announced. Allan Elias also was ordered to pay $6 million in restitution to the victim and his family. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Justice on behalf of the the EPA today filed a lawsuit against Guide Corp. and Crown Environmental Group, Inc. for discharging pollutants into the White River and causing one of the largest fish kills in Indiana history. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - TPI Petroleum Inc. will spend $9.9 million on two community environmental projects in Alma and St. Louis, Mich., designed to clean up local waterways and promote the reuse of contaminated property in downtown Alma, under a settlement filed today in federal district court in Bay City, Mich. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - Two South Carolina men have plead guilty to an illegal scheme that lead hundreds of people to incorrectly believe their underground storage tanks had been tested properly for leaks of petroleum and other contaminants. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- A federal court today ruled that there is no risk to human health or the environment from the Army's destruction of chemical weapons at the Tooele Chemical Agent Disposal Facility near Salt Lake City. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- In a significant environmental ruling, a federal appeals court has revived a wetlands enforcement action against a Maryland developer who violated the Clean Water Act by discharging excavated material into wetlands without a permit. (Read more)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice today took action to ensure that over 100 million Americans in the eastern half of the United States breathe cleaner air. The action comes in the wake of an important decision last month by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia. That decision ruled in favor of the Clinton-Gore Administration's regional clean air approach to significantly control harmful levels of air pollution. Specifically, the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA today asked the Court to formally remove the "stay" that had been placed on the rule so that states can finalize plans to ensure emission reductions are achieved. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- In the longest sentences ever imposed under the Safe Water Drinking Act, a federal court today sentenced Koteswara Attaluri to nearly five years in prison and Mac DeWayne Overholt to more than seven years in prison for a conspiracy to dump more than 500,000 gallons of petroleum-contaminated wastewater into underground wells. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge today sentenced three Dutch nationals for their role in discharging pollution into the Alaskan Inland Passage from a Holland America cruise ship. (Read more)

WASHINGTON -- For the first time, a federal judge has upheld the EPA's longstanding interpretation and practice that the EPA and states have the authority to identify which U.S. waterways are polluted by runoff from urban areas, agriculture and timber harvesting and identify the maximum amount of pollutants that may enter these waterways. (Read more)

The Justice Department and the State of Colorado today announced an historic settlement that will protect the natural resources of the San Luis Valley while assuring that the region's agricultural economy will receive adequate water. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Alcoa Inc., one of the world's largest aluminum producers, has agreed to pay $8.8 million as part of a Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act settlement the Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency announced today. The case, which is related to the company's Warrick County, Ind. facility, is part of a federal effort to help clean up the Mississippi River and its basin. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today settled an environmental lawsuit against AT&T, a subsidiary, and two contractors related to the installation of underwater fiber optic cables near St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - A Florida man today pleaded guilty for his role in illegally trafficking rare reptiles that are protected under domestic and international law. Phillip Langston admitted in U.S. District Court in Miami that he conspired to smuggle and sell a large variety of reptiles, and he pleaded to one felony conspiracy count. (Read more)

The EPA in October 1998 issued a rule identifying 23 Midwestern and Southeastern states whose air pollution was drifting into several Eastern states, elevating unhealthy levels of ground-level ozone in the East. The EPA directed those 23 states to develop a plan to reduce nitrogen oxides, a precursor to smog. A federal appeals court today substantially upheld this EPA rule. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As part of an ongoing initiative to stop pollution illegally released from coal-fired power plants, the Justice Department, acting on behalf of the EPA, today expanded lawsuits filed against three electric utilities in November 1999. (Read more)

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency today announced the settlement of a major Clean Air Act enforcement action against the Tampa Electric Company that requires the company to significantly reduce harmful air pollution from its power plants and pay a $3.5 million fine. This agreement is the first to result from a national enforcement action aimed at cutting emissions from coal-fired power plants. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Three operators of a sewage treatment company have pleaded guilty to environmental crimes related to the mismanagement of nearly 100 sewage treatment and drinking water plants in Louisiana, the Justice Department announced today. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. today was sentenced for failing to report the illegal disposal of hazardous waste on Alaska's North Slope, the Justice Department announced. The U.S. District Court in Anchorage imposed the maximum criminal fine of $500,000 and ordered the company to establish a nationwide environmental management system designed to prevent future violations. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal grand jury has indicted a Mississippi poultry rendering company and its president on criminal charges that they conspired to dump hundreds of thousands of gallons of slaughterhouse waste into a stream that supplies drinking water to Jackson, Miss. The indictment also charges 70 separate Clean Water Act violations resulting from these discharges. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sparton Technology, Inc. will clean up soil and a plume of groundwater contamination associated with its Albuquerque facility under a settlement filed today in federal court in Albuquerque, the U.S. EPA and the Justice Department announced. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In a significant environmental ruling, a federal appeals court today reversed a lower court decision ordering the Department of the Interior to remove gray wolves relocated from Canada and released into part of their historical range in the United States, including Yellowstone National Park. (Read more)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A private, Mississippi-based utility company operating sewage treatment and drinking water plants in six states today pleaded guilty to a conspiracy related to its failure to give Louisiana residents basic sewage treatment. Johnson Properties Inc. and six subsidiaries agreed to pay a criminal fine of $4.36 million and restitution of $165,000 to affected communities. (Read more)