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PA THREE SENTENCED FOR FAILURE TO REPORT RELEASE OF HAZ. WAS.

Release Date: 06/15/96
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PA THREE SENTENCED FOR FAILURE TO REPORT RELEASE OF HAZ. WAS.

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1996

THREE PENNSYLVANIA TOWN OFFICIALS SENTENCED FOR FAILURE TO REPORT RELEASE OF HAZARDOUS WASTE

Former Covington, Pa., township supervisors John York and Robert London and fire chief Joseph Chmielewski were sentenced on June 6, in Scranton, Pa., on criminal charges stemming from a 1992 hazardous waste incident. York and London received eight months confinement, half of which may be served in a half-way house and the remainder in home confinement. Chmielewski was sentenced to four months home confinement and two years probation. The defendants were also sentenced to serve 200 hours of community service. The criminal convictions arose out of an incident on June 21, 1992, when the defendants unearthed five drums of waste buried on a tract of land owned by Covington Township in Lackawanna County, Pa. Each drum was punctured in the process, releasing chemicals into the environment. A town laborer was ordered to crush the drums and rebury the waste. No required report was made of the incident to the proper authorities. Subsequent testing of the drums by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection determined that at least three of the drums contained hazardous waste. One drum was found to contain a highly flammable mixture that was potentially explosive. York had experience handling hazardous materials in his employment. Chmielewski had received training regarding the handling of hazardous waste incidents as part of his duties as Fire Chief. Federal law requires that hazardous waste be disposed of only at a permitted facility and that any release of such a substance into the environment be immediately reported to the proper authorities. All three defendants pleaded guilty to failing to report the release of hazardous materials into the environment. The case was investigated by the EPA's Criminal Investigation Division.

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