All News Releases By Date

PA TWO MEN CONVICTED IN ALASKA OIL SPILL

Release Date: 01/03/97
Contact Information:

PA TWO MEN CONVICTED IN ALASKA OIL SPILL

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1997

TWO MEN CONVICTED IN ALASKA OIL SPILL

On Dec. 17, 1996, a federal jury in Anchorage, Alaska convicted Paul Taylor, former vice-president of Pacific and Arctic Pipelines Inc. (PAPI) and the Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company (PARN), along with Edward Hanousek, a PARN railroad supervisor, of Clean Water Act violations. These charges related to an Oct. 1, 1994 spill of oil into the Skagway River that resulted when employees accidentally ruptured a PAPI oil pipeline while using heavy equipment to transport rock that PARN had illegally quarried on federal land. Taylor was convicted of making two felony false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard regarding the spill. Hanousek was convicted of a negligent Clean Water Act violation.  In a plea bargain with Russell Metals Ltd., of Canada, parent corporation for PAPI and PARN, Russell was sentenced to pay $1.5 million in fines and serve five years probation. The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigations Division, the U.S. Coast Guard and the FBI.

R-1                                          #    #    #