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CEO OF MISSISSIPPI COMPANY SENTENCED
Release Date: 03/09/2001
Contact Information:
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 2001
CEO OF MISSISSIPPI COMPANY SENTENCED
Luke C. Hester 202-564-7818 or e-mail: hester.luke@epa.gov
Tammy H. Etheridge, former Chief Executive Officer of Central Industries, Inc., Scott County, Miss., was sentenced March 2, for violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). The company previously pleaded guilty to CWA violations and was fined $14 million. The company operates an animal rendering plant and was charged with discharging levels of polluted wastewater that exceeded permitted levels from its rendering plant into Tallabogue Creek, a tributary of the Pearl River. Etheridge was fined $300,000 and ordered to serve four months home confinement, three years probation and 200 hours to benefit the community. Discharging higher than permitted levels of organic wastes into surface waters can reduce oxygen in rivers and streams and thereby harm fish and aquatic life. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigations Division, the FBI and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and was jointly prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice and by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jackson.
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