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PA COMPANY AND EMPLOYEE SENTENCED FOR CAUSTIC SODA SPILL
Release Date: 07/25/97
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JULY 25, 1997
COMPANY AND EMPLOYEE SENTENCED FOR CAUSTIC SODA SPILL
On July 14, HCI Chemtech Distribution Inc., of Chesterfield, Mo., and Andre Rober of Leawood, Kan., were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri in Kansas City after pleading guilty to one count of violating the federal Clean Water Act. HCI and Rober were convicted of discharging several thousand gallons of highly caustic sodium hydroxide into the Missouri River from Chemtech’s Kansas City plant in September 1995. Sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda, can kill living tissue on contact. HCI was ordered to pay a fine of $175,000, $21,200 in restitution and serve three years probation. Rober was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and serve two years probation. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the Kansas City, Mo., Fire Department with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.
R-108 # # #
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