HARTFORD, Connecticut, August 19, 2004 (ENS) – Tyco Printed Circuit Group of Stafford, Connecticut, a subsidiary of Tyco International, has been sentenced in Hartford federal court to pay $10 million in fines and environmental restoration for discharging copper, lead and other toxic substances into Connecticut waters. On April 29, Tyco pleaded guilty to 12 felony counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act at three Connecticut facilities between 1999 and 2001.
In Hartford federal court on Monday, U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello ordered Tyco to pay $6 million in criminal fines and $4 million toward the following environmentally beneficial programs:
(1) $2.7 million to the Connecticut DEP's natural resources fund (2) $500,000 each to the towns of Stafford and Manchester to fund sewer and water treatment system improvements (3) $300,000 to recycle deionized and other wastewater at Tyco's Stafford and Staffordville facilities.
In documents and statements filed with the Court, Tyco acknowledged the company committed a range of environmental crimes at Tyco's facilities in Manchester, Stafford, and Staffordville, Connecticut, with the knowledge and active participation of the company's head of Environmental Health and Safety Daniel Callahan, and two waste treatment supervisors, Anthony Dadalt and Robert Smith.
In 2000 and 2001, at the now vacant Manchester plant, Tyco regularly bypassed equipment designed to treat wastewater and reduce levels of copper, lead and other toxics. The company used the bypass in order to avoid slowing production and to ease pressure on the overburdened waste treatment system.
Tyco was required to seek prior approval for bypasses from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), but the company ignored that requirement until it was caught in the act of bypassing by a DEP inspector in the spring of 2001. Then DEP conducted "surreptitious monitoring in the sewer downstream of the Manchester facility" and found high levels of lead and copper.
On June 6, 2001, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency executed a federal search warrant at the facility.
Tyco admitted that its Manchester employees failed to report discharges from a waste treatment "batch tank." Under a discharge permit issued by the DEP, Tyco was required to treat wastewater in the batch tank until it could be discharged within permit limits, and monitor and report discharges of the batch tank each month. Again, Tyco ignored these requirements, sometimes discharging the batch tank when sampling indicated that permit limits had not been met, and other times discharging without sampling at all. To conceal these discharges, Tyco employees, including Callahan, assisted in preparing false reports to the DEP that indicated that no discharge of the batch tank had occurred. The U.S. attorney said these activities "were part of a broader scheme carried out by Tyco's environmental managers between 1999 and June 2001 at each of the three Connecticut facilities to avoid reporting permit violations, particularly regarding toxic metals and pH."
Callahan, Dadalt and Smith previously pleaded guilty to felony Clean Water Act violations. On July 30, 2004, Chief United States District Judge Robert N. Chatigny sentenced Smith to one year probation. Dadalt and Callahan are scheduled to be sentenced on August 20 and August 31, respectively. Each faces a sentence of up to three years of imprisonment and a maximum fine of $250,000.
The government is "unaware of any environmental harm attributable to Tyco's conduct," said the U.S. Attorney's Office, adding that it is "impossible to fully assess the potential impact of these crimes on the environment because the scheme was intended to conceal the actual pollutant levels in Tyco's discharges."
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