Environmental Fraud

January 19, 2017

Meadowvale Dairy, LLC -- which operates multiple concentrated animal feeding operations in Rock Valley, Iowa -- agreed to pay a civil penalty of $160,000 for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act related to mismanagement of animal wastes. The company also agreed to take actions to prevent illegal discharges to Iowa streams which EPA estimates will result in a reduction of approximately 200,000 pounds of pollutants discharged annually into Iowa streams. DOJ

January 19, 2017

Magellan Pipeline Company agreed to roughly $16 million worth of injunctive relief across its 11,000 mile pipeline system and to pay a $2 million civil penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act related to gasoline, diesel and jet fuel spills in Texas, Nebraska and Kansas. DOJ

January 17, 2017

Freeport-McMoRan, Inc. subsidiaries Cyprus Amax Minerals Company and Western Nuclear, Inc. agreed to the cleanup of 94 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation in a settlement valued at over $600 million. DOJ

January 17, 2017

NCR Corporation agreed to complete one of the nation’s largest Superfund cleanup projects at Wisconsin’s Lower Fox River and Green Bay Site. An enormous amount of cleanup and natural resource restoration work has already been done in the area under a set of partial settlements, an EPA administrative cleanup order, and court orders in a federal lawsuit brought by the United States and the State of Wisconsin. The final phase of cleanup taken on by NCR will cost up to $200 million or more over the next few years. The total cleanup costs for the Fox River Site will exceed $1 billion. DOJ

January 13, 2017

Potomac Electric Power Company (Pepco) agreed to pay a civil penalty of $1.6 million for alleged violations of Pepco’s Clean Water Act permit at its service center located in Anacostia. It also agreed to implement a number of measures to reduce metals in stormwater entering into its drainage system and will install an in-pipe treatment system to further treat the stormwater, which discharges into the Anacostia River. DOJ

January 12, 2017

Two Greek shipping companies -- Oceanfleet Shipping Limited and Oceanic Illsabe Limited -- were sentenced to pay corporate penalties totaling $2.7 million after being convicted for obstructing justice, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, tampering with witnesses and conspiracy. Each company was ordered to pay part of its penalty to Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary in recognition of the threat posed by illegal discharges of oily waste to the marine environment. DOJ

January 11, 2017

Volkswagen AG agreed to plead guilty to three criminal felony counts and pay a $2.8 billion criminal penalty as a result of the company’s long-running scheme to sell approximately 590,000 diesel vehicles in the U.S. by using a defeat device to cheat on emissions tests mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board, and lying and obstructing justice to further the scheme. In separate civil resolutions of environmental, customs and financial claims, VW also agreed to pay $1.5 billion for a total payout of $4.3 billion in criminal and civil penalties. DOJ

December 29, 2016

Tennessee Gas Pipeline LLC agreed to pay the Massachusetts $640,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by Tennessee Gas – a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan – against the state for an easement through Otis State Forest in Sandisfield to expand an existing natural gas pipeline. As part of the $640,000 settlement, Tennessee Gas will pay $300,000 for the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to identify and acquire additional conservation land in the vicinity that provides ecological functions equivalent to the land impacted by the pipeline. MA

December 15, 2016

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company agreed to a proposed settlement valued at approximately $50 million to resolve claims stemming from the release of mercury from the former DuPont facility in Waynesboro, Virginia which led to the contamination of more than 100 miles of river and associated floodplain in the South River and South Fork Shenandoah River watershed. In addition to a cash payment of just over $42 million, DuPont will fund the design and implementation of significant renovations at the Front Royal Fish Hatchery, estimated to cost up to $10 million.  DOJ