Summary

On July 14, 2014, Ryan Thomas, former Logistics Manager, CES Environmental Services, was sentenced in U.S. District Court, Beaumont, Texas, to 12 months probation, ordered to pay a $500 fine, and serve 100 hours of community service for falsifying shipping documents related to the transportation of hazardous materials.  

Thomas produced manifests that indicated that three tanker truckloads of wastewater originated from CES' Houston plant when in fact, they were produced and shipped from CES' Port Arthur (PACES) plant. The PACES location was placed on a moratorium after a November 3, 2008, accident in which a CES driver was overcome by vapors released during the offloading of wastewater. The disposal facility placed the moratorium on all loads of waste-water from the PACES location until the cause of the accident could be identified and new inbound load testing protocols were agreed to.

We conducted this investigation with the Environmental Protection Agency – Criminal Investigation Division. The Department of Justice, Environmental Crimes Section assisted with the prosecution of this case.