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FLORIDA RECYCLING COMPANY INDICTED AGAIN FOR CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS
Release Date: 01/15/99
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 15, 1999
FLORIDA RECYCLING COMPANY INDICTED AGAIN FOR CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATIONS
Gary Benkovitz, President of Bay Drum and Steel Inc., in Tampa, Fla., and his company were indicted Jan. 7, in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa for violating the Clean Water Act (CWA). Both defendants were indicted on this new charge while awaiting sentencing for their previous conviction on Sept. 17, 1998, on charges of conspiring to violate the CWA and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Benkovitz and his company are in the business of acquiring, cleaning, reconditioning and re-selling 55-gallon drums. This latest indictment alleges that the defendants knowingly discharged hazardous wastewater by directing employees to pour drum wash water into a storm sewer that leads into McKay Bay. In addition, the defendants were also indicted on Sept. 24, 1998 for allegedly improperly disposing of as much as 160,000 gallons of drum washing waste water in violation of RCRA. The case was investigated by the EPA Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department with the assistance of the EPA National Enforcement Investigations Center, and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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