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PA WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT SUPERINTENDENT CHARGED

Release Date: 06/13/97
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 13, 1997

WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT SUPERINTENDENT CHARGED

William H. Grim, former Plant Superintendent of the Bethlehem Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bethlehem, Pa., was charged on June 3, with three counts of violating the Clean Water Act in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Grim was charged with negligent supervision of the city’s treatment plant that allegedly led to continuous violations of the plant’s water discharge permit between July 1993 and April 1994. Testing procedures were not properly followed. Samples of wastewater discharged from the plant were allegedly held longer than allowed by the discharge permit before testing was conducted for fecal coliform bacteria and biological oxygen demand. Grim is accused of failing to ensure that samples were tested daily, failing to notify either the state of Pennsylvania or EPA that the holding time requirement was being violated and falsely reporting on Discharge Monitoring Reports that the testing was being conducted on a daily basis. Grim faces a maximum penalty of three years imprisonment, a maximum fine of $300,000 and a maximum of three years supervised release. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division.


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