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MICHIGAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO ILLEGAL WASTE DISPOSAL

Release Date: 05/20/99
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THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1999


MICHIGAN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO ILLEGAL WASTE DISPOSAL

James W. Morgan of St. Clair Shores, Mich., former president and owner of Morgan Artcraft Screen Print Inc., pleaded guilty on May 13 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit to charges of violating the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The defendant admitted in his plea that he paid $1,000 for the illegal disposal of several thousand containers of hazardous waste inks. The inks were abandoned at an unused warehouse in Detroit. Some of the abandoned inks were flammable and others contained lead. Exposure to sufficient quantities of lead can cause neurological disorders in people. EPA’s Superfund program paid $30,000 to dispose of the abandoned inks. The plea agreement calls for up to eight months of incarceration and a fine to be determined at the time of sentencing. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center, and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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