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Defendent Pleads Guilty To Illegal Storage Of Hazardous Wastes

Release Date: 10/06/1999
Contact Information: Mary Mears (212) 637-3673 / mears.mary@epa.gov

(#99157) New York, N.Y. -- Attached is a U.S. Attorney's Office press release announcing a guilty plea in a case involving the illegal storage of hazarodus waste at a facility in Lakewood, New Jersey.

TRENTON -- A Lakewood man today admitted that for year he illegally stored and disposed of hazardous wastes at his paint manufacturing company in Ocean County, U.S. Attorney Faith S. Hochberg announced.

William Moskowitz, 70, and his Sav-Cote Chemical Laboratories Inc. (Sav-Cote) each pleaded guilty to charges in an eight-count Indictment returned May 5. The Indictment charged Moskowitz and the company with violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), which prohibits the storage or disposal of hazardous wastes without a permit.

Today's guilty plea to counts Two through Eight is in connection with seven underground storage tanks removed by the EPA in 1998 as part of a Superfund cleanup at the site, 1094 River Road (Route 9), Lakewood. The remaining count, to be dismissed at sentencing, charged with a similar violation for buried drums that the EPA also has removed from the site, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Alain Leibman.

"Mr. Moskowitz demonstrated absolutely no regard for New Jersey's environment when he dumped untold gallons of toxic chemicals into the ground in Lakewood, right next to a daycare center," said Hochberg. "I personally visited the site during the EPA cleanup and was horrified by what I saw."

"This case demonstrates the need for strong environmental laws and tough prosecutions," Hochberg said.

"This environmental scofflaw has demonstrated total contempt for the environment by dumping harmful chemicals into underground tanks instead of disposing of them properly," said William J. Muszynski, EPA Deputy Regional Administrator. "Predictably, this facility was found to be contaminated, and EPA had to clean up his mess."

When Moskowitz is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown, Jr., he faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. Sav-Cote, Moskowitz' wholly-owned company, faces a $500,000 maximum fine on each count. Each faces an order for restitution. Sentencing is scheduled for 9 a.m. December 20.

Moskowitz was the president of Sav-Cote, a Virginia corporation authorized to do business in New Jersey, according to the Indictment. Beginning about 1965, Sav-Cote operated the Lakewood facility to package, distribute, and sell marine paints. The site included a single building on several acres that adjoined residences, a day care center and other structures used regularly by various persons, according to the Indictment. Moskowitz maintained a number of underground storage tanks adjacent to the building.

In 1998, the EPA began a Superfund cleanup at the site. After removing underground tanks, buried drums and contaminated soil, the EPA returned this past summer to remove additional buried drums and paint cans. Additional work is scheduled, according to Leibman.

Moskowitz admitted to Judge Brown that at various times since the mid-1960s Save-Cote mixed and sold marine paints, using solvents such as xylene, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone, and that until their removal by the EPA in 1998 there were eight underground storage tanks at the site.

He admitted that until Sav-Cote substantially reduced its mixing operations in the 1980s, he and the company caused paint solvents to be dumped into those underground storage tanks.

Moskowitz admitted that by no later than the late-1980s he was aware that such paint solvents in the underground storage tanks were considered to be RCRA hazardous wastes, that he deliberately ignored permit requirements, and that he and Sav-Cote continued without permit to store paint solvents in the tanks.

Moskowitz also told Judge Brown that by early 1996 he knew that one or more of the Sav-Cote underground tanks were leaking, and that he failed to remove the tanks or obtain any permit.

Under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Judge Brown will determine the actual sentence based upon a formula that takes into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, and, as to Moskowitz, the defendant's criminal history, if any. Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Under Sentencing Guidelines, defendants given custodial terms much serve nearly all that time, Hochberg said.

Hochberg credited special agents of the EPA Region II Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of William V. Lometti, Special Agent-in-Charge, and special agents of the FBI, under the direction of William C. Megary, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI's Newark office, with developing the case against Moskowitz and Sav-Cote.

The Government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Leibman of the U.S. Attorney's Fraud and Public Protection Division in Newark.

For more information contact:

Mary Mears, Press Office
EPA Region 2
290 Broadway
NY, NY 10007-1866
Voice: 212-637-3669 FAX: 212-637-5046 E-Mail: mears.mary@epamail.epa.gov