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SOUTH CAROLINA COMPANY, PRESIDENT PLEAD GUILTY TO VIOLATIONS IN SIX STATES
Release Date: 08/31/2001
Contact Information:
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2001
SOUTH CAROLINA COMPANY, PRESIDENT PLEAD
GUILTY TO VIOLATIONS IN SIX STATES
Luke C. Hester 202-564-7818 / hester.luke@epa.gov
GUILTY TO VIOLATIONS IN SIX STATES
Luke C. Hester 202-564-7818 / hester.luke@epa.gov
James Edward Adams of Inman, S.C., and his firm, Carolina Upgrading of South Carolina, Inc., each agreed to plead guilty on Aug. 26 to 15 violations of federal law. In their plea agreement, the defendants admitted that they conspired and falsified more than 1,500 tests of underground storage tanks to gasoline stations and state and federal facilities in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Federal law requires that underground storage tank owners periodically have their tanks inspected to test for leaks of petroleum or other products. Petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks can release benzene into groundwater, and benzene is a known cause of cancer. If accepted by the Court, the plea agreement calls for Adams to spend 27 months in prison and pay up to $250,000 in fines on each of the 15 felony counts. Carolina Upgrading faces a maximum penalty of a $500,000 fine on each of the 15 counts. The investigation was conducted by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations. The case is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Greenville, S.C.
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