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PA MISSOURI SHIPYARD AND OFFICERS SENTENCED

Release Date: 10/03/97
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1997
MISSOURI SHIPYARD AND OFFICERS SENTENCED

On Sept. 24, Edward Theodore Dlubac of Arnold, Mo.; Thomas Dlubac of Imperial, Mo.; Edward T. Dlubac of St. Louis, Mo.; and Meramec Marine Shipyard, Inc., of Arnold, Mo.; were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis for their roles in various crimes that arose from illegal waste disposal activities at the Meramec Marine Shipyard. Edward Theodore Dlubac, general manager of Meramec and Thomas Dlubac, Meramec’s vice-president, each received 18 months of confinement, two years supervised release and were ordered to pay $4,000 fines. Edward T. Dlubac, Meramec’s president, was sentenced to one day confinement, two years supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $3,000 fine. Meramec was ordered to pay a $125,000 fine, serve three years probation, and pay $20,995 in restitution to EPA and $1,556 in restitution to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. In the fall of 1995, numerous 55-gallon drums of ignitable hazardous waste containing toxic levels of benzene were buried under a dirt ramp at the Meramec facility and cans of ignitable paint waste, containing toxic levels of chromium and lead, were buried in a pit at the shipyard. Exposure to benzene has been identified as a cause of cancer in humans and lead exposure can cause damage to the human nervous system. In addition, employees of the shipyard would occasionally pump bilge waters from vessels and place containers of waste petroleum products into the Meramec River. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.


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