FORMER DNREC OFFICER CHARGED WITH ILLEGAL DISCHARGE OF POLLUTANTS

Washington, DC - Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, and Colm F. Connolly, United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, announced today that William Daisey, of Milton, Delaware, pleaded guilty to a violation of the Clean Water Act. Daisey, 53, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court before the Honorable Sue L. Robinson. The offense carries a maximum penalty of three years incarceration and a $250,000 fine.

In his plea, Daisey admitted that in 2000 and 2001, while he was Chief of Operations at the Delaware Department of Natural Resouces and Environmental Control facility in Lewes, Delaware, he regularly directed a DNREC employee to discharge oil-contaminated water from a 350 gallon sump pit into wetlands. DNREC’s Lewes facility serves as the base of operations for its Division of Soil and Water Conservation program, which is responsible for dredging the state’s waterways and replenishing its beaches. The wetland in question is connected through a series of mosquitos ditches to the Broadkill River. At no time did DNREC or its Division of Soil and Water Conservation have a Clean Water permit to discharge from its facility into the wetlands or the Broadkill River.

"It is inexcusable that someone in charge of a Natural Resouces and Environmental Control facility would illegally pollute the environment,” said Assistant Attorney General Sansonetti. “We took this matter very seriously and are pleased with today’s guilty plea.”

The guilty plea terminates the federal investigation. Sentencing is set for April 28, 2005 in front of Judge Robinson.

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