Headquarters Press Release
Washington, DC, from :

TWO CONNECTICUT MEN PLEAD GUILTY TO CLEAN WATER ACT VIOLATION

FRIDAY, JAN. 19, 2001

John Miele of Waterbury, Conn., and William Schweikher of Wolcott, Conn., pleaded guilty on Jan. 10 to violating the Clean Water Act. Both Miele and Schweikher were employed during the early and mid-1990s at a chemical manufacturing facility owned by MacDermid Inc., in Waterbury, Conn. Beginning in early 1993, employees at the MacDermid facility developed a practice of not reporting wastewater samples which indicated that the facility was exceeding its allowable levels for zinc and copper under its wastewater discharge permit. In their pleas, Miele the former plant manager, and Schweikher, the former plant engineer, admitted that they were criminally negligent in failing to detect and stop the practice of discarding samples. Each defendant faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and/or a fine of $100,000. The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut in Bridgeport.