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TWO LCP OFFICIALS RECEIVE LONG SENTENCES
Release Date: 06/11/99
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 1999
TWO LCP OFFICIALS RECEIVE LONG SENTENCES
Two former officers and managers of LCP Chemicals of Brunswick, Ga., a bankrupt subsidiary of the Hanlin Group Inc., of Delaware, received long sentences for their environmental crimes on June 2, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia in Brunswick. Christian A. Hansen of Highlands, N.J., former Chairman of the Board of Hanlin was sentenced to serve nine years in prison and pay a $20,000 fine. This is the longest federal prison term handed down for environmental crimes. Alfred R. Taylor of Brunswick, former Plant Manager at LCP Chemicals was sentenced to six and one-half years in prison. Both defendants were convicted on one count of conspiring to operate the plant in violation of environmental laws, and one count of knowing endangerment under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). In addition each defendant was individually convicted on a variety of other environmental offenses. Workers at the Brunswick plant were repeatedly exposed to imminent danger of death and serious bodily injury by working conditions which repeatedly exposed them to possible chemical burns, electrocution, and poisoning from inhalation of mercury vapors and from other contacts with mercury-contaminated and corrosive wastes. LCP manufactured chlor-alkalai bleach, caustic soda, hydrogen gas and hydrochloric acid.
In the process, the defendants caused mercury and chlorine to be released into Purvis Creek. Contact with sufficient quantities of mercury can lead to neurological disorders, and chlorine is a highly caustic material which can cause chemical burns in people and can be harmful to aquatic life. Cleanup at the LCP site has cost approximately $55 million so far, and additional cleanup of sediments, if feasible, could cost an additional $100 million. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center, and was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
R-61 ###
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