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International Prosecution for Mishandling of Hazardous Waste Nets More Than $2 Million in Restitution, Fines, Community Service

Release Date: 02/16/2006
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113, heron.donna@epa.gov

(Philadelphia, PA - February 16, 2006) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Attorney’s Office have announced that Joel D. Udell and two affiliated businesses, Pyramid Chemical Sales Co. and Nittany Warehouse LP, were sentenced on February 14, 2006 to pay more than
$2 million in restitution and fines for mishandling hazardous wastes in Pottstown, Pa., and in Rotterdam, the Netherlands between 1998 and 2000.

In addition, Udell, who now resides in Boca Raton, Florida, must spend six months in home confinement in Montgomery County, Pa. under electronic monitoring and perform 500 hours of community service in Pottstown.

The defendants had pleaded guilty previously to storing hazardous waste without a permit at the former Nittany Warehouse in Pottstown, Pa., from May 1998 to early 2001, exporting hazardous waste outside the United States without consent of the receiving country on various dates in 2000, and transporting hazardous waste without manifests and to unpermitted facilities in 2000.

The sentences imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Bruce W. Kauffman included:

* the defendants are jointly and severally liable to pay $1,243.072.65 to the Dutch government, $409,639.97 to Europe Container Terminals BV, and $150,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These payments are to made over a five-year period of probation imposed on all the defendants.

* Udell was fined $100,000 and the two companies each received $50,000 fines.

* Udell must spend six months home confinement in Montgomery County, Pa., and perform 500 hours of community service in Pottstown, Pa. He must perform at least half of the 500 hours during the six-month home confinement period.

* Udell must pay a $1,500 special assessment and the companies each must pay a $6,000 special assessment.

“These defendants knowingly mishandled hazardous waste both in Pennsylvania and abroad,” said Granta Y. Nakayama, EPA's Assistant Administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The message is clear: we will pursue criminals demonstrating such willful disregard for the public’s safety and the environment -- even when it crosses jurisdictional lines -- and we will continue the collaborative efforts with international authorities to prosecute these crimes.”